


Much Ado About Everything and Nothing

by AvixiLynn91



Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types, Hannibal Lecter Tetralogy - Thomas Harris
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Child Abuse, Death, Depression, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-17 19:24:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2320601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvixiLynn91/pseuds/AvixiLynn91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 2 of Practical Examinations. Hannibal and Will are now in University, testing their new romantic relationship. Everyone around them seems to welcome them with open arms, but the water under the bridge soon begins to boil as straying, covetous eyes begin to close in on Will and Hannibal. University AU!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Much Ado About Everything and Nothing**

**Avixi Lynn**

 

Herro once again mein fronds! I hope everyone had a most relaxing start to the fall, and I hope whatever you have going on in your life-be it school or work or both, etc, you are enjoying and succeeding in effortlessly!

This is indeed the second part to my first story Practical Examinations. If anyone is stumbling upon this fanfic now and scratching their head, I would highly recommend you read Practical Examinations FIRST as it serves as an introduction to the characters and the major plot. Plus, a lot of what occurred in the first story WILL in fact be mentioned throughout this fanfic, so it is best to read that one (plus it's funny as all hell haha).

A bit of background as to where I am taking Part 2: It will be a University AU. *That was a give-away at the end of the first story anyway* This story will mainly be a test and peek into Hannibal and Will's new relationship as they battle how to manage each other's personality, balance work and school busy schedules, and not let other people's straying eyes *MASON* get the better of them and get under their skin.

 

**WARNINGS** : This second fanfic will be dealing with much more intense and dark content than the first. In the first fanfic, I basically wanted to show how the characters move from being innocent and almost childish in a sense, to dark and very corrupt in the second story. It will be a very long story, so please bear with me if I do not update as frequently. I am planning on always writing at least 2 chapters before I post one on Archive so I do not fall behind and keep people waiting. I ain't that twisted, haha.

This story will also have a LOT of kinky, twisted, and perverse sexual depictions and graphic language and violence, so if that is going to be a problem, then by all means enjoy other wonderful fanfictions out there. Anyway this Author Note/Introduction thingy has gone on too long, but I posted this ahead of time so everyone knows where I am going with my stories and so I do not get many of the same questions and concerns perpetually.

This story will also *unfortunately* include depictions of child abuse, rape, attempted rape, pedophilia, and other various psycho-sexual disorders. I am sorry for writing such dark content ahead of time, though, but I feel there really is no other way to portray the world of Hannibal.

Enjoy the chapters to come, and happy reading and writing everyone!

Cheers,

Avixi


	2. Birthday Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will begins a new semester and a new year at the University of Maryland with a seemingly happy and fulfilling relationship with Hannibal Lecter. But everything is not as it seems, and seeing is not always believing...

**Chapter 1**

 

"It looks like you shit yourself. I'm sorry. It really does, though." Will turned over in the long row of dark blue colored seats in the auditorium of the University of Maryland at the student next to him. Today was the first day of his first class of his first week at the University, and already he was running out of patience.

Will had woken up late this morning due to his alarm clock not being plugged in properly the night before (which he blamed entirely on his new roommates having a game night and insisting-no, forcing-him to join in on) instead of allowing him the peace and time to finish unpacking and setting up his belongings as he liked them in his new room.

His first class was Sociology 100-Introduction to Sociology in the main auditorium in the Social Sciences building on the Southern section of the large campus. Since it was the first week of September, Will had unfortunately run into a lot of busy students bustling about, and he wasn't even two minutes out the door of his shared housing unit when it had begun pouring heavily, each raindrop blasting him on the face as the wind howled wildly.

Many leaves had fallen off their tree branches and been carried off into the wind to land on students, getting caught in their hair, schoolbags, books, as if the wind was mocking them and purposefully making them look shabby on the first day.

Will had slipped on a big pile of leaves as he tried to ascend the large hill that the auditorium was built on, and the water combined with the leaves made for a very slippery slope, and he had tripped and slid nearly halfway down the muddy hill. The only thing he had gained from that little misadventure was a sore behind, and a very muddy stained set of jeans at that.

He had tried to sit upon his fall coat to cover the mess, but many students in the third row where he was seated had already witnessed the mess and laughed it up as if it were the most amusing thing in the world to behold.

Will ignored the immature brats sitting to his left who tried to pull at his coat and observe his dirty jeans and instead turned to a young girl sitting beside him on his right side.

The girl was roughly the same age as Will, had brown colored hair with a slight red tinge in the bright early morning sunlight, and it was tied into a neatly combed and organized ponytail. She had beautiful fair skin with a few freckles on her upper cheeks and nose, and captivating eyes. She had already purchased the course's required textbook, _Milestones in Sociology, Third Edition_.

She was hastily highlighting the first chapter of the textbook and paused when she felt Will watching her. She lifted up her head and smiled slowly at Will.

"Hey. I didn't mean to disturb you, I was just wondering why you are taking notes and reading so steadfastly." Will offered a small smile and a chuckle, hoping he'd make a good impression and hopefully a new friend.

Will normally had no problem being on his own during classes, but since he met Hannibal, he knew that the older boy had drawn him out of his shell, and encouraged him to socialize more and seek out more friends since Hannibal was going to be dedicating all his time and energy towards his medical research and work at Johns Hopkins.

The young girl closed her book and set the yellow highlighter on top of the dark brown rectangular desk gently. "I always like to get a head start, and I'm planning on completing a double major in Psychology and Criminology. I just like to stay on top of things."

Will was impressed. This young girl was as ambitious and studious as he was. Perhaps he was going to make a very good new friend and hopefully a new study buddy as well.

He nodded and smiled enthusiastically at her. "That's wonderful to hear! I'm planning on majoring in Psychology as well, may take a minor too!"

She mirrored his small. "Miriam Lass." "Will Graham."

They shook hands happily as the room soon flooded with hundreds of other students.

"Is this your first year?" Will asked.

Miriam nodded."I actually transferred out of a college in Texas. I figured University is more my thing, and I want to have a more academic career."

"I don't know what exactly I want to do yet in terms of a career, but I'm just glad to be out of high school." Will stated as he looked around the room for people he could also include in his new study group and friendship circle.

Miriam shrugged. "It's ok, Will. No one knows what they want to do even until third year sometimes. Technically I am still enrolled as a Liberal Arts major but I will change it to Psych and Criminology once all my records have been sent over to administration."

Will was about to speak when everyone else in the room simmered down and silenced their conversations.

An elderly man roughly in his early fifties had entered the room through a side door, carrying multiple books and a briefcase. He set his books on the small desk in the very front of the room and opened up his briefcase to pull out a laptop. He opened the silver laptop and connected it to the screen system at the front of the room and turned off the lights once he was set up completely.

He turned on a small microphone attached to his shirt, and ran a hand through his greying hair as he pulled out small, thin-rimmed glasses and set them on his nose.

"Good morning everyone. Welcome to Sociology 100. My name is Professor Desroches. A little bit of a background about me: I completed a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at the University of Florida, then moved to Kentucky and attended the University there to complete a Master degree in Psychology. I finally completed my Ph.D. dissertation here at Maryland University. My research heavily weighs on interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships in contemporary society, child-rearing values in the twenty-first century, as well as deviancy and its causes in the United States of America."

Will looked around the room and observed many students pulling out their laptops and books immediately, seemingly taking notes, but as he looked around the circular room, he could clearly see that many students were checking their Facebook or Twitter profiles, and he snickered to himself silently at their lack of respect and attention for the learned professor.

"How many people are planning on majoring in Sociology?" The professor's sudden question resulted in at least fifty hands being raised.

"Psychology?" More than a hundred hands went up.

The professor sighed. "Yes, Psychology is always a very popular body of knowledge among this University."

No one said a word as little clicks and taps echoed across the room as students typed on their laptop keyboards hurriedly.

"We have approximately four-hundred students in this class, and since this is an entry-level, first year course, we will only have one midterm, one final exam, and one large reflective essay paper due before the Christmas Holidays."

A few students sighed and others shifted in their seats nervously as the professor typed in his teacher I.D. and signed into the University website page for their course.

"Any further questions related to house-cleaning matters before we go over the course syllabus? No? Good."

**************************************************************************************

It was nearly seven-thirty in the evening when Will finally got back to his housing unit after classes. The first day wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, and he had managed to even get Miriam's cell phone number so they could keep in touch and study together for other classes.

Will was barely inside the shared house, when a slew of balloons, confetti, and party hats were thrown in his direction.

"SURPRISE!!" Will leapt into the air with a hand over his heart as Bedelia, Hannibal, Franklyn, his new roommates, and his dogs greeted him at the door.

"You guys remembered!?" Will cried, hugging his adoptive mother tightly and cowered away from her smothering kisses.

Will birthday was on September 8th. He had only told Hannibal once before, but he wasn't sure if Hannibal would be able to keep a track of it due to his busy schedule.

Hannibal was next to hug Will tightly and he smirked. "Wouldn't miss it for the world, Will."

Will felt the paws and muzzles of his dogs assault him over-joyously, sniffing and leaping up on him as they begged for attention.

"Pizza's in the kitchen sweetheart, come on!" Bedelia moved aside and grabbed Will's hand to lead him inside.

"Congrats, bro!" His roommates whom Will didn't particularly always get along with clamped him on the back and punched him in the shoulders and arms playfully as they followed him into the kitchen and attacked the defenseless pizza sitting on the medium sized kitchen counter.

The house itself was a two-floored level house, with three bathrooms, three bedrooms, and one medium sized kitchen. Will paid a shared rent total of four-hundred and eighty dollars a month, which was rather average for a housing unit as the one they were in.

Will sat down in the living room with two slices of vegetarian pizza on a plate resting on his lap as he awkwardly smiled and listened to Bedelia and his roommates sing "Happy Birthday" along with his howling and whining dogs.

"Shut up!" His roommate Charlie Bronson yelled and laughed as he playfully rustled Winston's light colored fur, earning a yawn from the dog.

Hannibal soon entered the room holding up a beautiful large rectangular cake with white and light blue frosting, and blue carefully, neatly printed words that read: Happy Birthday William. The cake had eighteen perfectly arranged candles about, that danced merrily in the light breeze of the house as Hannibal set the cake on the coffee table in front of Will.

"A most pleasant birthday to you, Will." He smiled proudly and stood next to Bedelia as everyone in the room trained their eyes on Will.

Will set his pizza aside and laughed. "Alright, no pressure, guys!" He leaned forward and took a deep breath before pursing his lips to blow out the candles.

"Hey hey!! You need to make a wish, Mister!" Bedelia cried as she slid the cake a few inches away from Will's mouth.

"Oh yeah!" Will rolled his eyes playfully and re-adjusted his glasses on his nose. He closed his eyes and paused for a long time. His mind and ears registered the sound of the large circular black clock resting above his head and the couch on the wall, the sound of the TV left on in the kitchen, blaring the news reports, and the sounds of his dogs whining impatiently.

"While we're still young, buddy." A Vietnamese roommate named Philip Nguyen mocked as he sat down on a brown worn out couch impatiently.

Will smirked and blew out the candles all at once perfectly while his eyes were still closed. Cheers and hoots from his roommates and Bedelia echoed about the house.

"Good form, Will." Hannibal simply said proudly.

"You could have just said: Sweet shit, man!" Charlie joked. Hannibal didn't even acknowledge the other boy as he held up the carving knife in his right hand, admiring the sharp, clean blade for a few long seconds, almost as if he was going to speak to it and profess his darkest, deepest hidden secrets before he brought it down onto the cake and cut the first slice and handed it to Will.

Their eyes met, and Will blushed as Hannibal intently looked at him and handed him a plastic fork. "Bon appetite."

******************************************************************************************************

"You be good ok sweetie?" Bedelia pinched Will's cheeks lovingly and kissed them roughly as she held him tightly to her.

Will squirmed in her grasp as he watched his roommates snicker and whisper to each other devilishly. "Mom, stop! This is embarrassing already!"

She ruffled his hair and smiled warmly. "I love you honey. I am so proud of you, you know that?"

Will blushed. "Ok! I love you too!" He spoke in a hurried rhythm.

Winston head-butted into Will's knees. He looked down at the dog and gently flicked his ear. "I love you too, you little bozo."

"Just call me if you need anything ok?" Bedelia offered her adopted son as he tugged the rest of the dog's leashes and pressed her car key buttons to unlock the doors.

Will nodded and helped Bedelia put the dogs in the car before he gave his stepmother one final hug. "I'll see you during the Holidays mom. I promise."

She sighed and flipped her blonde wavy hair over her shoulder. "I know. Study hard ok?" She ruffled his hair one more time and entered her red SUV car.

"I will!" He waved at her and watched her pull out of the parking lot and drive off into the street as she waved back a final time at him.

Will sighed and turned to face Hannibal standing a few feet away from him in the doorway of the house, hands folded neatly across his front, his eyes following each and every little move that Will made.

Will snorted and gave him a half smile. "Don't look so smug."

Hannibal smiled back. "It's incidental, Will. What would you have me do?"

Will approached Hannibal with a seductive grin plastered on his face. He inhaled the wonderful masculine scent that was Hannibal, and felt himself inwardly groan for contact. Hannibal and Will had not yet labeled their new relationship. Both boys still were discovering and learning new things about each other, and Will didn't want a label at all for that matter. Since the night of their first passionate kiss in the summer, Will and Hannibal had not initiated further contact. At first, Will had been certain that Hannibal had begun to regret the kiss, but when Hannibal had held Will's hand during the first day after their orientation programs, Will felt more relaxed and at ease.

They weren't exactly "boyfriends" either, but Will often referred to them as such in his own mind. He just didn't want to voice it out loud and have Hannibal retreat. He was not willing to take that chance, so he obeyed Hannibal's space and work time, and tried not to get in the way. Whatever came after was entirely on Hannibal's time and Will allowed the older boy to control the shots, so to speak.

Will ran his eyes up and down Hannibal's tall, lean frame, and inwardly swooned. Hannibal was wearing a black vest, with a white dress shirt underneath it. The first few buttons had been undone, revealing his muscular chest right beneath Will's nose. Hannibal wore his hair professionally and cleanly gelled back today; not even a single small strand of hair coming loose from the rest of the held back group. His skin gleamed in the lights turned on outside the house and in the parking lot, and Will wanted to do nothing more than taste the skin that was shining and almost calling out to him.

"I'd have you do many, many things, Hannibal..." Will flirted. He knew he was taking a big chance, and a big leap in their new relationship, but he wanted to give it a try. Hannibal was a very vocal and verbal person, and Will guessed he was into the whole "dirty talking", but in a very refined manner. Will wanted to take his time and experiment with their word exchanges.

Hannibal's smirk grew wider as his mysterious eyes landed on Will's plump lips. He moved away from his spot at the doorway, and walked towards Will carefully, eyes still on his lips. "Oh? Are you suggesting something naughty then, young Will?"

_"Holy balls! He's eating this right up!"_ Will mentally and inwardly cheered at his plan's success.

He played coy and shrugged as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked even closer to Hannibal. "I don't know, I mean, you're older than me, after all. Wouldn't you say _you_ are corrupting a minor?"

Hannibal chuckled darkly and reached out a long hand and rested it on Will's shoulder. "I'd do no such thing, Will."

Will felt his heart drop a little at this statement. So Hannibal didn't want to play along after all. What was he thinking? He suddenly felt silly and wanted to recoil and go back into his room inside the house when Hannibal dipped his head low and brought his lips down next to Will's right ear and whispered huskily.

"I'd do so much more than merely corrupt you, Will..." Hannibal's warm breath caressed Will's ear, and the young boy shuddered and unconsciously leaned in close to Hannibal, begging to be held and touched.

"Hannibal..." Will whispered wantonly.

"Yes, my Will." Hannibal whispered back, and Will nearly moaned out loud in the night when he felt a hot wet tongue touch his ear.

_"Oh my god!!"_

Will rested his head on Hannibal's shoulder, revering in the feeling of Hannibal's hot tongue sliding up and down his ear, as if it were using his ear as a dance floor and practicing and perfecting its own seductive moves only for him.

Will began panting as he felt himself slowly spiraling out of control.

"Tell me what you want me to do to you, Will. I'll never object if the order is coming from you." Hannibal teased as he brushed his teeth slowly along Will's earlobe.

_"He's killing me!"_ Will felt his heart beating so rapidly in his chest, that he was almost certain Hannibal could feel and hear it as well. But he didn't care. This was by far the most erotic and sensual act he had taken part in during his youth and he didn't want it to stop any time soon.

"Hannibal!" He gasped when he felt those sharp large teeth clamp onto the length of his earlobe and hold onto it for a few moments before Hannibal let go and began running his hot tongue along Will's earlobe, as if seeking pardon for the sudden bite.

"Oh god!" Will cried as he clung to Hannibal desperately, trying to hold back the primal urge of rutting up against Hannibal's hips like a wild animal in heat.

"I see you thoroughly liked that, Will." Hannibal merely pointed out the obvious.

Will groaned a bit louder when he felt a strong warm hand rest upon the small of his back.

"What are you doing to me, Hannibal?" He asked a rhetorical question.

Hannibal chuckled in response.

Will closed his eyes and turned his face towards Hannibal's and was about to rest his lips on the older boy's, when a CRASH! came from inside the house.

Will leapt away from Hannibal, still breathing heavily-though from shock and fear instead of excitement.

"Shit!" He heard Charlie's voice drift towards them from the kitchen.

"Max! You ate all the pizza!" He called to another roommate, Max Flannigan, a boy who weighed approximately two-hundred and ninety pounds of pure muscle. Max was training to become an athlete, but was oddly majoring in Political Science, for one reason or another. Max was always seen stuffing his face, and he didn't seem to cease eating. However, the boy would normally hit the gym right after his meals and work out with the weight sets until everyone else had cleared the gym practically.

Will never got in his way due to his size and his over-all negative attitude. He reminded Will all too much of Jack Crawford, and Will certainly didn't want any more trouble.

"Dude, it was just sitting there. What was I supposed to do? Make love to it?" Max retorted back.

"Hey! You even drank all the beer!? What the hell, Max!"

Will turned to Hannibal and ran a hand awkwardly through his hair as his roommates continued bickering like two over-grown children. Why did his bloody fool roommates have to go and ruin their moment?! It was perfect!

"We'd better head inside." Will said numbly as he turned and practically ran inside the house, not wanting to face Hannibal for the moment.

He felt Hannibal's eyes on his retreating back as he entered the house and headed for the small set of stairs that lead to his room on the second floor of the house.

He turned before he could be rude, and looked down at Hannibal's feet. "Thank you, for everything. The birthday surprise was a treat."

Hannibal didn't smile but nodded. "My pleasure, Will."

"It was great seeing you again." Will felt as if he were reciting from a textbook rather than genuinely thanking Hannibal for his kindness and he wanted to kick himself in the ass for it. He should have been more warm and approachable.

"I bid you good night, Will." Was all Hannibal said before he turned and curtly exited the house, closing the door gently behind him.

"MAX!"

"Oh shut the hell up."

"Happy Birthday to me indeed." Will sighed as he continued to ascend the stairs. He had never been so happy to close and lock his door as he had that night.

*******************************************************************************************************************

**Stars shining bright above you,**   
**Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"**   
**Birds singing in the sycamore tree,**   
**Dream a little dream of me...**   
**Say "Night-ie night" and kiss me,**   
**Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me,**   
**While I'm alone and blue as can be**   
**Dream a little dream of me!**   
**Stars fading but I linger on, dear**   
**Still craving your kiss I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear**   
**Just saying this**   
**Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you...**   
**Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you,**   
**But in your dreams whatever they be,**   
**Dream a little dream of me!**

The voice of Doris Day greeted Hannibal's ears as he walked down the narrow, empty hallways of the student housing building he was currently in as he headed back to his room for the night. The noise did nothing but make him irate, though he did not show it.

Hannibal had felt the increasing amount of sexual tension rising between Will and himself, but he was uncertain of where to take it. Hannibal did not wish to impose on Will, nor did he want to force himself on the younger boy; no matter how much he begged and no matter how badly he wanted to have Will to himself. He felt that Will was merely flirting and playing with him at this stage of their odd relationship rather than actually wanting sexual relations.

Hannibal blamed it all on youth and hormones, but he respected Will's wishes nonetheless. He wanted nothing more than to take Will upstairs to his room that night, and touch him until he came apart at the seams in his hands. Will was now eighteen, and Hannibal felt morally more at ease about taking Will for himself. He didn't want to take advantage of Will, and he knew he would definitely stop if Will should ask. But he knew for a fact that Will simply was not yet ready.

Hannibal had done the gentleman thing to do and simply left when he felt the situation nearly reaching out of hand, but he almost regretted it when he walked down the hallways and turned left and then right towards his room. He stopped at an open door to the left side of him and peered inside a dimly lit room.

A few feet ahead of him was a medium sized single bed, and all Hannibal could see were shiny clean black dress shoes tapping along expertly to the rhythm of Doris Day's song as it played over and over again in the room.

Hannibal growled lightly and walked forward to knock on the door. "I beg your pardon."

The music didn't stop, and the tapping of the feet didn't stop on the bed.

He knocked again, not wanting to set a foot inside the room. "Excuse me!" He called out a little louder, hoping he wouldn't wake anyone on the floor or in the hallway.

Suddenly, the feet stopped their little dancing moves, and they swung over the side of the bed, and hurried to the far left corner of the room Hannibal couldn't see from his awkward diagonal angle near the door.

He heard the music stop at once, and he breathed out in peace. Silence at last.

The shoes padded over to him suddenly, and the door flew open. Hannibal wanted to hiss in anger when he was face to face with Mason Verger. The boy had messy bed-head hair that stood up stock still, erect like a woodpecker's crown. His glasses were dirty, fingerprints littered all over the lenses, and he was wearing a half un-tucked wrinkled red dress shirt and simple grey dress pants. He looked a mess. His room however was strangely in perfect condition. A bookshelf was resting against the wall above a study desk, the cubicle light turned off, and the top of the desk was cleaned and the books perfectly arranged on the top shelf. His brown-red dresser was next to the bed, and not a single hygiene product was on top of the desk. Only a small square framed picture of Mason and another red-headed young girl wearing her hair in two long braids was displayed, followed by another picture frame of the same young girl on top of a large dark brown horse leaping across a field next to the other picture.

Mason followed Hannibal's eyes resting on the photos and he smiled and laughed out a choked laugh that Hannibal wanted to cringe at immediately. "My sister, Margot. She loves horses. Can't get enough of 'em! She rides professionally and for sport you know. Such a delicate art, horseback riding..."

Hannibal held up a hand to silence Mason. Frankly, Hannibal knew it was too late in the night for lengthy conversations, and secondly, he felt utterly disturbed by Mason Verger's voice. Mason had a slightly nasal voice, but there were times when it graveled out almost like nails going down a chalkboard to Hannibal's ears, and it made his ribcage rattle with anger and distaste for the boy.

"That's all well and good, Mason. But I came by to tell you to turn down your music."

Mason laughed another choppy, annoying laugh. "Way ahead of you, Hannibal."

Hannibal didn't say a word and turned to head back into his room and get some sleep before his seven in the morning shower and then work shift. "Thank you." He called out from over his shoulder.

"Say, would you like to come in for a while? I could use some company." Mason asked as he stepped out into the hall.

"No thank you, Mason." Hannibal answered very quickly-perhaps, too quickly.

Mason looked as if he wanted to crumple onto the floor and shatter in a hundred pieces. He had a genuinely hurt expression on his face, and it seemed as if he was almost pouting; his pink lips curling downward on his face, and his eyes narrowing at Hannibal. "I see...well fair enough, another time then?" He asked as he perked up a bit at the silent hope he had made himself internally.

Hannibal nodded and closed the door to his room. "Fiend." He whispered once the door was entirely shut.

Before he had a chance to turn and set his things inside his room, he heard Mason whisper back through the other side of his door: "You have _no_ idea."

*******************************************************************************************************

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mason's such a creepy little shit. That's seriously all I can say for now. Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter!!!


	3. Dark Gathering Clouds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tension starts to build up as the first few weeks of September go by. Two old friends also drop by to see Will with a little gift...

**Chapter 2**

 

"Mr. Lecter, job well done on last night's shadow shift. We are very impressed with your work so far. Keep up the good work." Dr. Emanuel Forsythe gave Hannibal a small, encouraging pat on the back and threw him a proud smile as Hannibal walked to the change rooms in the hospital and took off his light blue scrub and set his hospital cap inside the locker neatly.

"Always a pleasure to work with a prominent surgeon." Hannibal smiled back and threw his white gloves into a disposable bin carefully.

The third week of September brought for Hannibal much hard work. He had already read through most of his books about surgery, doctor and patient ethics, and was starting to prepare early for midterm exams and projects. He had been allowed to work in the hospital mostly as an observer and a lab assistant, handling blood vials of patients and storing them in the lab before handing them off to other labs if they needed further testing. Some days he worked as a receptionist and a secretary, taking phone calls whenever the hospital was busy, and booking patients for appointments here and there. He eagerly tried to pick up as many shifts as he could before the studies piled up like a mountain heap upon his shoulders. Hannibal also figured he could use the extra hours and references to his benefit in the future of surgery and medicine.

Hannibal pulled out his light brown suit jacket and put it on as he pulled out his cell phone from the pocket and turned it on to text Will.

**"My shift has ended, Will. Do you care for some company and tea?"**

After he hit "send", he departed from the hospital and walked down the dark street. Hannibal looked at the time on his cell phone and raised his eyebrows. It was shortly after midnight already. He was sure Will was probably asleep at this point, but the phone buzzed to life almost immediately.

 **"Thought you'd never ask! Can I come over?"** Hannibal was about to text back a reply, when he suddenly felt as if someone or something was watching him. Hannibal had often been commended on his set of highly sharp skills. It was as if his five senses had been combined and doubled into ten great acute senses. Many of his fellow teachers and classmates had often told him he was far too superior in his senses to be human. And now Hannibal definitely knew someone was observing him in the dark of the night as he slowly inhaled deeply.

It was a strong male scent that reached his nose and alerted every fibre and cell in his brain. He collected himself, pocketed the phone, and walked on forward, trying to act as casual as possible. He whistled a little tune to himself and watched the slightly damp pavement pass him by as he kept a leisure pace. The sound of his own melodic whistling was nearly comforting in an odd sense as he moved forward. The scent still followed, however, and it only seemed to grow stronger.

Not wanting to risk endangering Will's life, Hannibal decided he would deal with the stalker himself; using his own creative methods.

Hannibal made a sharp, abrupt turn left when he saw he was drawing closer to the street that Will's shared house was located on. He kept on whistling as he trained his keen hearing and nose on the intruder that was stalking him.

There was a small playground located close nearby, and Hannibal decided he would enter the playground. It was surrounded by a small black fence that barely reached up to Hannibal's thighs, and the long-legged boy climbed over the fence gracefully. He walked over to a small, old swing set, and sat down as he continued whistling to himself.

Hannibal looked to the seat on his right and he chuckled. _"Always room for one more."_

He closed his eyes, and set his strong hearing senses on the bushes in front and surrounding the playground. He heard the earth and dirt beneath on the ground shift and crunch as the steps of the male following and watching him shifted back and forth almost uncomfortably.

Hannibal opened his eyes slowly, and gazed at the night around him. The night air was cool and crisp, almost like biting into a fresh head of lettuce. He peered at the stars around, and got up from his seat as he kept his neck tilted up and his head leaning back a little. He smiled to himself and whistled a different tune as he walked in a lazy circle around the sand in the playground.

He soon began humming as he walked in larger circles, moving his black shoes very deftly, each move carefully and rigidly planned in a disguise of carelessness and play. Hannibal raised his hands with purpose, almost resembling the various depictions of the Lord Christ on the crucifix.

He spun faster and faster, arms reaching for the sky more and more as he reached the bushes around the black fence. Then, as quick as lightning striking the earth, Hannibal leapt up from both his long, strong muscular legs as high as he could, over the fence, and right down onto the stalker who had been following him.

"ARGH!!!" The muffled voice cried in pain as Hannibal grabbed the back of his covered head, shoved it face-down onto the mud and grass, and held the kicking man roughly with the weight of his entire body.

"Let him go!" Hannibal did not do such a thing, but he stopped struggling as soon as he heard and recognized the voice.

He looked up to see Brian Zeller come out from behind a large oak tree in the dark. The boy had grown a few inches taller in the last year, and he was wearing a well-trimmed, thick dark beard with a small black tuque on his head and black gloves. He was wearing small blue jogging shorts, and held a little paper bag in his glove-covered hands.

"Let him go Hannibal! You'll choke him!" Hannibal peered down to see a kicking and writhing Jimmy Price under his own body.

Hannibal groaned softly and rolled off the younger boy and pulled him effortlessly back onto his two feet, holding him by the shirt collar using only one hand. Jimmy was also wearing black from head to toe, but hadn't grown as much as Brian had in the passing year. His hair had grown a little bit, revealing a thick, full look to it.

"What are you two doing following people in the middle of the night?" Hannibal hissed as he brushed himself off.

"Chill! We were looking for Will, actually." Jimmy said as he craned his neck and then cringed and massaged it. "What the hell did you do to me?!"

"We came by to surprise him and give him this!" Brian motioned to the paper bag he held in his hands.

Hannibal narrowed his eyes into dangerous slits at Brian, and in two deft moves, he bounded over to Brian and swiped the paper bag into his own hands.

"What the shit?!" The young boy cried in shock.

"Silence yourself!" Hannibal yelled back as he opened the paper bag and frantically dug out its contents.

A large bottle of chardonnay was all he found. He sighed and looked at Brian with exhausted eyes. "Will doesn't drink much. But it is a kind gesture."

"So it was worth it then to kick my ass over that?!" Jimmy yelled as he snatched back the paper bag and the bottle and stuffed it carefully back in the bag.

"Dude we spent like, all our summer savings for it..." Brian said as he dug his hands into his short pockets.

"I had no idea you were capable of finding a summer job, let alone keeping one." Hannibal glared and muttered as he turned and began walking back towards the street that lead back to Will's house.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Jimmy said as he and Brian followed Hannibal.

"I assure you; it wasn't one." Hannibal said although he faced forward and barely acknowledged the two boys.

"So Hannibal, I gotta ask, man, where did you learn those slick moves from?" Brian asked as he sped up a bit and caught up with Hannibal. He huffed and puffed as he tried to keep up with the older boy, but Hannibal having the advantage of long legs and height was moving faster than he intended to without exertion.

Hannibal looked over at Brian silently, though he wore an un-impressed expression on his face.

"You were all like, ninja and shit!" Brian held up both his hands in a mock Bruce Lee combat position, and began making horrid, loud, exaggerated fighting noises.

"Hiiiiiyaaaaa!!! Waaaataaaaa!!! Ooooooowaaahhh!" He chopped at the air back and forth and slammed his fist into Jimmy's face as the other boy brushed up to him.

"OWWW!!" He cried as he covered his nose in pain and anger.

"Kindly cease and desist before I am forced to call upon the police." Hannibal warned calmly as he tried to ignore the two buffoons behind him.

The boys jogged up behind him, slapping and trying to flying-kick each other in the face or body as they laughed and roared like a rabid pack of hyenas.

"Hey Hannibal! Don't tell Will we're with you! We wanna still surprise him." Jimmy cried as he playfully shoved Brian forward, resulting in the other boy to turn around and shove him in return.

Hannibal smiled to himself as he saw the front door lights on in the house that Will lived in. "Pity. I was going to tell Will I brought two friends and was planning on having them for dinner."

********************************************************************************************************************

Will was just as surprised and confused to see Brian and Jimmy as Hannibal had been earlier once the trio had reached the shared house.

Will was the perfect host, however, and brought out snacks for Brian and Jimmy, and the two boys munched the food down while Will took Hannibal's coat and hung it in the closet. By the time he had returned with Hannibal to the living room, Brian and Jimmy were too busy having a food fight.

"You can't leave them alone for two seconds, can you?" Will asked as he shook his head at the pathetic display before him in the living room. Food was flying through the air in rapid succession, littering all over the couches, tables, lamps, chairs, carpet, DVD player, TV, and PS3 player. The room looked worse than a jungle within seconds.

"I'll be right back. There's only one way to deal with this." He said to Hannibal as he watched the boys chuck Oreos at each other after they had taken them apart and licked off the white icing in the middle.

"I conquer." Hannibal said back as he watched Will go into the kitchen, reach in a cupboard under the sink, and pull out a yellow pail. He filled it to the top with cold tap water, and walked back to the living room.

"Jimmy, Brian!" He called, and dunked the water on the two over-excited boys in a second flat.

"WILLLL!!!!!!!" They both cried in unison as they sat with the Oreos all over the floor, water all over the carpet and their clothing, dripping.

"That'll cool you off." Will said as he sat down on a dry couch.

"So _this_ is the thanks we get for bringing you the goods, huh?" Jimmy growled as he shook his head like one of Will's dogs after a bath.

Will face-palmed and rubbed his eyes and forehead tiredly as he took off his glasses. "I don't drink much, you guys know that."

"Hey don't hate; appreciate." Brian said as he nodded to confirm the odd statement that had flown out of his mouth as he flicked water drops around the place.

Will rolled his eyes. "What are you guys doing anyway? I'm surprised you didn't get expelled from Baltimore State High School by now."

Jimmy laughed. "We're in our final year, but we skip pretty much every other class. Shit's not the same without you, Will."

Brian nodded. "It's true. But Jack is not back this year...I mean we see Tobias every now and then in between classes, but Jack is nowhere to be found."

"I doubt anyone misses him." Hannibal muttered as he walked and sat down on the couch next to Will gracefully and almost silently as his feet made no noise on the carpet.

"Alana might." Will regretted saying that the minute he closed his mouth. It was as if everyone in the room had felt the blade sink in immediately. The room even seemed almost colder as soon as he had mentioned her name.

While Will had gotten completely over Alana, he knew and had to admit that she was still part of the reason why he couldn't fully have a sexual relationship with Hannibal quite so soon. He trusted Hannibal, and that was not fully an issue for the couple; he just didn't know how to give himself to Hannibal entirely. He knew his heart was for Hannibal, but he was not yet ready to give his body to Hannibal. Will was still frightened and feared abandonment. That was the main reason why he has chosen to take their relationship slowly.

"So umm....anyway Will, how are classes here?" Brian interrupted as he took off his hat and squeezed the water from it.

"Hey! That's the floor!" Will growled.

"Didn't think of that before you soaked us." Jimmy growled.

"Classes are fine, really, I like the challenge, and most of my professors are more intellectual than half the entire staff at Baltimore State High School." Will ignored Jimmy's earlier comment. He just didn't trust his own emotions and mouth too much at the moment, and didn't have the energy to deal with the immature boys this late in the night either. Therefore, silence and less chit chat was his best weapon and ticket out of the situation.

"And how are your roommates gettin' along with...you know..." Jimmy motioned with his head over in Hannibal's direction of the room, his chin jutting out in an ugly manner.

Will shook his head. "With what?"

Jimmy cleared his throat and sat back with his hands resting on his knees. "Well...you know!"

"I don't, you have to be more clear, Jimmy." Will said as he sighed exhaustedly. He was in no mood for games tonight.

"Ok, look, are your roommates ok with your.... _relationship_ with Hannibal?" Jimmy asked quickly and hid his red face.

Will laughed and threw his hands in the air; a mock gesture of surrender almost. "Why is everyone so touchy around that? We're not really doing anything illegal! Come on!"

"That's not what I meant...I wasn't trying to be offensive, man!" Jimmy argued angrily as his face grew even more red when he looked over at Hannibal's calm and collected face.

"Do you happen to mean sexual relations?" Hannibal cut through the room.

"NO! I mean, I never asked!" Jimmy cried as he scratched his wet head and nervously shook his hands about.

"You implied it, though! That's bad enough, just come out and say it. Have some decency!" Will cried, taking Hannibal's side.

What was wrong with everyone? Were they really afraid to say the word "homosexual"?

"Come on, Will! I'm your friend! You know I'm not the type to pick at certain groups of people." Jimmy argued defensively as he held up his hands high in the air as if being held up by the police.

Hannibal laughed and crossed his arms over his chest. "And pray tell, just what _groups of people_ do you happen to be referring to?"

Jimmy nearly choked. "You know! Guys who-"

"Go on." Will hissed as he mimicked Hannibal's curt body language.

"Don't make me say it." Jimmy said nervously, eyes darting around the room as if he was afraid someone was listening in on the conversation.

"Say it." Hannibal ordered.

"Say it, now!" Will growled along as he kept his dark eyes on Jimmy.

Jimmy was never one to be a homophobic person by nature, but Will had observed the other boy cringe and mime sticking his hand down his throat to make himself vomit once he had witnessed two guys making out in a park during one hang out in the summer. It had never really bothered Will because the situation was never pointed directly at him as it was now.

"You know! H-h-hom-m-m-" Jimmy began.

"This is kind of hot." Brian interrupted.

A silence was all that flew about the room at that statement, when thundering steps descended from the second floor of the house and down the hallway. They continued until they stopped in front of the living room.

Max Flannigan had seemingly come out of the shower on the second floor of the house, his dark brown hair wet and spiky with fresh gel pasted onto it, his dark green eyes piercing the room and the people within it as he flexed his large muscles through his white t-shirt unconsciously.

"H-h-hey." Brian said as he stared at the bigger boy in awe.

"Umm....what the hell are you guys doing?" Max asked as he ignored Brian.

Brian gulped loudly. "Wish I knew." He whispered, the statement barely audible as his eyes seemed to gobble up the sight that was Max Flannigan.

Brian and Freddy Lounds had unfortunately had one too many fights and arguments during the summer, and had resorted to taking a break from their romantic relationship. While Brian claimed he still loved Freddy deep down, Will began to doubt it for he often witnessed Brian flirting with many people as of late; male and female. He wondered if Brian was bisexual, but Will was never one to pry and didn't bother inquiring about Brian's romantic preferences.

But he felt he nearly wanted to, especially the way Brian was checking out Max as the other boy stood in the doorway of the living room and looked around, bored.

"We're just talking." Jimmy said, looking to be relieved that someone had interrupted the awkward conversation in the nick of time.

"Why's the floor all wet?" Max asked as he took a step forward into the room, and then back out when he gaped at the drenched boys.

"You guys are covered in it too!"

"That's what she said." Brian dumbly said out loud.

Everyone slowly turned to look at Brian.

"Sorry. Thought it'd be funny. I'll shut up now." He hung his head low and looked down at his feet.

"They were acting out like the moronic two-year-old giant man-children they are, and I wanted to cool them off." Will said as if it had been no big deal at all.

Max looked at his muscles and nodded. "Whatever. We got any Twinkies left? Can't find any in my room."

Brian suddenly looked up at Max, his body jerking forward awkwardly. He looked at Will in confusion.

"Umm. Sometimes he gets these weird cravings late at night and resorts to eating Twinkies. Relax, champ." Will explained to Brian calmly.

"I'm gonna check the fridge." Max trudged along over to the kitchen.

Jimmy looked up at the black clock resting on the wall before things could get even more weird and awkward. He cleared his throat and stood, yawning and stretching as he pulled Brian up with him to his side.

"Well, we should go, man. It's one in the morning and we know you have classes tomorrow."

He excused himself, practically racing for the front door as he gathered his belongings and stood outside waiting for Brian.

Will had been certain that Jimmy's awkward behaviour was due to the fact that he knew Hannibal and Will were romantically involved. While Will still considered Jimmy a close friend, he knew he would never be able to change or convince the other boy to accept his relationship with Hannibal.

 _"I don't have a thing against gays, dude, but keep that shit as far away from me as possible is all I am sayin'."_ Jimmy's cold words echoed in Will's mind as he helped Brian gathering his belongings and walked him towards the front door.

Hannibal followed them silently.

Brian was more accepting of Will's new relationship with Hannibal, and he gave Will a small brotherly hug.

"I appreciate the surprise, and thanks for the little treat." Will said as he smiled at Brian warmly, while keeping an eye on Jimmy at the door, who stood looking nervously at the ground and kicking about at little pieces of dried up grass and mud.

"Hey anytime, man. You two take good care of each other, ok?" He nodded over at Hannibal, and pet Will on the shoulder before he turned and headed for the door and followed Jimmy into the dark.

"Hmm, on a scale of one to ten, how successfully do you think that went over?" Hannibal asked as he whispered next to Will.

"Negative eight." Will sighed as he leaned into Hannibal's side gently.

He heard the shuffling of feet behind him, but kept staring out into the dark night as Max approached them.

"We're out of Twinkies."

*****************************************************************************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope I was able to bring back the amusing comedy of Brian and Jimmy for a few laughs before the story begins turning gruesome and tragic. Read and review!!  
> Avixi


	4. Actus Reus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things begin taking a turn for the worst...in more than one way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Attempted rape!! Implied past child abuse!! Proceed at your own discretion!

**Chapter 3**

 

Miriam Lass treated her first study session with Will as a coffee get-together. She bought Will a medium sized decaf cup, and a two-sugar and cream medium sized cup for herself as they quickly found a seat in the busy coffee shop on the large campus of UMBC.

The weather was quite cold for the first week of October. Many students were already wearing gloves, mittens, scarves, and boots. While there had been no signs of early snow coming, the rain did not seem to want to leave any time soon, and most days it rained continuously for hours.

Piles of leaves had flown around the sidewalks and roads all over campus, making the once beautiful and luscious ambiance turn almost swamp-like in appearance. Puddles that seemed to only be small cleverly hid themselves in the depth of the large potholes on the roads and streets, and if ever a poor, unfortunate student happened to step into one, they faced an entire rest of their day with kneecap high water drenched pants and shoes.

Will rested a hand on his chin as he looked out the large window in the coffee shop at students and professors trying to hold onto their coats and hats as the wind assaulted them harshly, even managing to push a few people off balance.

"Thank God I'm not out there." Miriam mumbled as she sipped her coffee and wrinkled her nose suddenly. "Too much sugar!"

Will didn't respond, but observed her from his peripheral vision pull out her binders and their sociology textbook with a small pack of highlighters ready to go on the tabletop.

"So how far did you read?" She asked Will as she opened her pink flower-designed binder and flipped through the lengthy pages of notes from top to bottom all over each and every page inside the binder.

Will looked about on the University campus grounds, his eyes floating around and landing on the people outside as they went about their day in a routinely manner. He stopped on a few guys who wore the same coat as Hannibal, and had the same styled black dress shoes. He sighed and turned to Miriam.

Miriam had a raised eyebrow as she stared at Will, the steam rising up from her coffee and whipping about her face as if she had bewitched the cup and ordered it to wind about in the air like a snake being charmed.

"What?" He asked carelessly.

"You look like those dopey bimbos in all those teen movies who has a strong crush."

Will flopped his hand down onto the cold surface of the tabletop. "I do _not_ resemble those bimbos!"

"Yes you do, you're even sighing like you were born to do it." Miriam sat back and put her hair up in her trade-mark clean ponytail. How she was able to collect each and every strand of her long, thick hair without the use of a comb or mirror was simply astonishing to Will. She didn't even use an extra clip or bobby-pin at all.

"Alright. Enough monkey business." She breathed out, her breath grazing across the steaming cup, separating the sensual steam and pushing it back to Will.

"I read everything we're supposed to for the upcoming midterm." Will simply said as he gripped his own coffee cup in his hands and drew the cup to his chest. He tried to get all the heat into his own cold hands as much as he could.

"Will, that's good, but it's not good _enough_." Miriam sighed as she took out a pen and began writing something on the paper within the binder.

"What do you mean not good _enough_?" Will inquired as he lazily sat back in his chair and tapped his toes on the tiled floor of the coffee shop.

"Well if the professor says you need to read four chapters, why not push yourself and read six? You need to always be a few steps ahead of everyone else, Will. That's the only way you're going to succeed."

Will tried not to focus too much on the loud noises of the other patrons of the coffee shop as they engaged in their own hearty conversations; some laughing and others practically screaming from joy. A large group of girls sat in the corner next to the window, all of them had their laptops out and open as they laughed and chatted amongst themselves.

Will shivered a bit, and cursed the coffee shop owners internally. He wondered why they couldn't simply turn on the heat yet.

"Are you listening, Will?" Miriam's frustrated voice brought him out of his sudden pause.

"Yes, I heard you, Miriam."

She didn't believe him and gave him a look that clearly communicated that.

"No I do agree, and it is important to always stay on task and fully ahead. Good method." Will added, hoping he'd be exempt from her scorn, now.

Miriam Lass may have been a thin girl, but she sure did give off a dominant and ambitious demeanour that Will did not ever want to disturb for he knew she would make sure there would be hell to pay.

They worked along well together and got along, and Will did not ever wish to go away and disrupt that. Miriam had been kind enough to lend Will her notes and give him more detailed examples as they drew multiple examples from the class lectures and tried to apply majority of the theories into their own life experiences.

"Should we go over Merton's theory of Anomie again? I kind of feel like Dr. Desroches never went over that enough in class." Miriam offered as she downed the rest of her coffee quickly.

 _"A little too eager, I think."_ Will smirked at his thoughts, but nodded and pulled out his materials to get ready.

Miriam had barely spoken a few words into her mock lecture, when Will suddenly heard the laughter of a child. Although the coffee shop was extremely busy that day, and multiple voices were mixing together so that it wasn't easy to pick out even the slightest word and differentiate it from the rest of the noises flying around, Will still knew this sound for what it was: A child's laughter.

He whipped around in his seat, eager to see a new face and a new age group, but there were only a few tired looking teachers and students in line at the front of the coffee shop.

Will's eyes searched and searched the coffee shop, but there was no trace of a child at all.

"Over here, Will." He felt the jab of Miriam's pen in his shoulder, and he turned back, shaking his head and sipping his coffee quickly.

Miriam watched him with curious eyes. "You ok there?" She asked softly.

Will set his cup down and wiped his chin delicately. His tongue burned like the tenth level of hell, but he responded still. "Is this decaf or a coffee straight from the bowels of hell, Miriam? Jesus...what did they put in this thing?"

She only shot him a puzzled glance.

He shook his head and cleared his burning throat. "Maybe I'm going crazy. I thought I heard something."

Miriam laughed. "Well we _are_ in a popular, busy coffee shop, Will. What were you expecting?" She laughed it off and wrapped her coat around herself tightly as the door swung open and more students entered, eager to get their food and beverages for the day, but also brought in the cold, harsh wind along with them.

"Nothing, let's just go over Anomie theory again, and then I think we should study together for Criminology too. I have an essay due soon on the differences between the classical and rational choice theory on crime."

Miriam nodded at that set agenda. "Let's do this!"

Will smiled back and began writing the date at the top of his page in beautiful neat handwriting, when he heard the child's laughter once again.

He hadn't been imagining it that time! It was a sharp, chipper, short laugh. It was the type of laugh that immediately made you want to laugh and smile in return due to how damn contagious it was.

Will looked up at the ceiling of the coffee shop. The radio wasn't even on today in the shop...but he had heard the laughter; he was one-hundred percent certain of it.

When he turned to look at the line-up at the door again, the door opened slowly, and Mason Verger practically tumbled inside the cafeteria like a clumsy oaf.

Will snorted pitifully at the sight that was Mason Verger at the door. Apparently the idea and presence of a comb had never been introduced to Mason. His hair stood very crazily up from the top of his head, and likely due to the increasing amount of wind blowing harshly about, and the damp atmosphere, it looked quite frizzy this morning. He was wearing a strange fashioned grey trench coat with thick black buttons, and Will hated to admit it: but from afar, it nearly resembled an old German Nazi officer trench coat. Mason wore thick black boots and his glasses were soaked with rain. A small leaf clung to the back of his head, almost smiling at everyone devilishly in the shop as Mason whipped and turned his head around and around, looking at everything and nothing.

"He looks like a confused sparrow." Miriam stated as she watched Mason carefully too, her pen still upon her paper.

Will nodded, still looking at Mason. "He creeps me out. Ran into him during the time I was moving into student residence."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. He didn't talk to me at all, though. He seems to be more interested in Hannibal." Will explained.

Miriam knew who Hannibal was, but Will had been careful not to tell her that he was romantically involved with Hannibal. He didn't trust Miriam too much still, and he figured she wanted to focus mostly on her studies rather than relationship worries and drama.

"I never talk to him. No one does, really." Miriam explained back as she looked back down at her work.

"Why not?" Will asked. "Surely he has _some_ friends..."

"I don't know, and I don't care, Will. Let's just get back to work, please. Mason Verger scares the heck out of me, never gave me good vibes to begin with, and that's reason enough for me never to get involved with him." Miriam had the final say and began highlighting rapidly.

Will turned back and looked down at the books and notebooks on the tabletop. Miriam had stated many good points: Why even bother with Mason, given all the creepy feelings he gave everyone around him? It wasn't worth it.

Will turned back over his shoulder one final time, and this time his eyes met directly with Mason Verger's.

Mason kept his cold, blue eyes trained on Will, the fog and drying raindrops shielding his true expression held in his eyes from Will's sight, but Will guessed Mason was staring at him with derision.

Will kept his ground, however, and stared back at Mason, as if challenging him. Both boys began feeling tense as they stared at each other across the room. Will didn't feel cold at all anymore, as he felt the steam and heat of his anger for Mason begin to rise out of his chest and flood the coffee shop.

Mason suddenly grabbed his food from the cashier, and shoved a small handful of bills at her before throwing one final glare at Will before he made his way towards the door to exit.

Before he left, Will could have sworn on his soul and his parents' graves that he heard yet again the chipper giggle of the young child's voice again.

*******************************************************************************************************

Hannibal sighed happily to himself as he turned on the hot water faucet in the large bathtub inside the bathroom of his room. It had been yet again another long day at the hospital, but Hannibal had luckily gone home for the evening that day and managed to grab a bite to eat before he decided to relieve his aching joints and muscles in a warm shower.

He ran his hands up and down his chest as he gathered lather and soap about his chest. He had finished shampooing his hair, and took his time with the soap. He admired its scent and its gentle texture upon his skin. The bottle had been kept in the bathroom all day, and the heat of the room had kept the liquid soap from cooling off, and it was more than welcome on Hannibal's skin.

Hannibal turned over the bottle and squeezed out some more liquid soap for himself. He had been meaning to text or call Will right after work to arrange some plans for time only for themselves, but he had barely eaten much all day due to the hectic schedule, and he was very well aware that Will had many upcoming papers and midterms due. It was better for both of them if they kept up their energy for work and studies rather than other 'extra-curricular' activities.

Hannibal wondered what Will was up to at this moment in time as he opened his mouth and allowed some of the shower water to flood his mouth and he swished it about a few times and then spat it out carefully. He knew Will was definitely at home with his roommates, but he was more specifically wondering what he was up to all alone in his room. Will had made new friends, but Hannibal knew he craved more than merely friendship; especially from him.

Hannibal felt obliged to take care of Will's each and every little need. He would be there, at the boy's beck and call, treating him as he deserved to be. Hannibal wondered how Will would look like if he blushed like mad whenever they were alone together.

He imagined that heated, flushed skin next to his own as they lay down together, Hannibal on top of Will, cradling the boy's thin body carefully on Will's bed. Hannibal imagined Will's warm welcoming lips entrapping his own as they lazed about on the bed in the sunlight lazily, kissing and taking their time sucking on each other's lower lip while the sun heated their bodies.

Hannibal moaned out loud when he felt Will sucking passionately on his tongue, nearly drawing the life out of the older boy. The thing's Will's mouth was doing to him was absolutely unheard of to the human ears.

Hannibal nuzzled his face into Will's neck and bit down on the soft sweaty skin there. He wanted to bite the boy to death, practically, marking his light colored skin every inch of the way. He began breathing heavily, running a hand down his chest and resting on his navel as he felt Will wrap his legs around his waist tightly.

Hannibal pressed his entire weight on Will, and nudged open the other boy's legs as he looked down at him with passion and lust combined in one.

"How I want you, Will. How I need you..." He whispered as he flashed him his sharp white teeth.

Hannibal grabbed Will's hands in his own, and kissed all ten fingers slowly, as if making love to all of Will's fingers turn-by-turn. When he was done kissing them, he sucked each flesh covered digit slowly and sensually, never taking his eyes off Will. He then began biting and nipping the tender flesh next, earning loud moans and desperate pants from Will.

Hannibal felt Will begin to lose control beneath him as he moaned and arched up against him sensually. "Hannibal!"

Hannibal grasped his throbbing, aching desire for Will in his own strong hand, and confidently began stroking it as he looked deeply into Will's eyes. He nearly lost all control when he watched Will look down at him stroking and holding his length. Will ran his tongue along his lower lip, and Hannibal wanted to lean down and taste that saliva more than anything else in the whole world.

He quickened the pace of his stroking, his hand expertly flying up and down his length and twisting at the end carefully as he moaned Will's name louder and louder in the bathroom. He relished in hearing his voice echo throughout the bathroom as he imagined it was Will's voice crying out for him.

Hannibal watched as Will ran his hands down to his own hard length and grasped it as he blushed and smiled up at Hannibal.

"Yes! Do it, and place two fingers inside yourself, Will." Hannibal instructed, trying to hold back from bursting when he observed Will listen to him right away.

"Suck first!" Hannibal hissed as he grabbed Will's hand and brought it up to his own mouth, tongue darting out and thoroughly licking and sucking Will's fingers. Hannibal began to moan loudly around Will's fingers.

A loud knocking soon broke Hannibal out of his little heavenly paradise. He groaned loudly and slammed a clenched fist at the bathroom tiled wall. He had been so damn close! Hannibal normally didn't resort to such methods of dealing with his carnal desires, but the last few weeks had truly been nothing but torture for him. Despite trying to busy himself with work and school, he found he had no control over his thoughts and mind whenever it came to Will. The young boy had manged to float into his mind and heart at his own accord, and the weeks of pent-up sexual frustration had been enough for Hannibal. It had gotten so terribly out of control, that he had practically felt the need to rush Will into the nearest area of privacy and kiss him until he was a sopping, uncontrolled heap beneath him every time they were in a room together.

Hannibal silenced his out of control breaths and pants and turned off the water. The knocking still didn't stop, so he growled and threw back the shower curtain, picked up a white towel resting on the sink next to the standing shower, wrapped it around the nude lower half of his soaked body, and headed to see who it was knocking so profusely on his door.

He peeked in the peephole at the front door and inwardly cringed when he saw Mason Verger standing outside in the hall.

Hannibal slowly unlocked and opened the door for the boy, wearing a half-smile on his face. "Good evening, Mason."

"Heya!" Mason immediately pushed past Hannibal, inviting himself in Hannibal's small home. Mason looked as if he had actually put in half an effort to dress nice today. His hair however was still a mess and a half. He wore an ironed dark blue dress shirt with a long, casual grey tie over it, and matching grey dress pants that seemed to be a bit too tight and black dress shoes.

Mason turned on his toes, the toes of the shoes screeching across the floor of Hannibal's rented home in a very annoying manner.

"Forgive me for being ignorant, Hannibal. I'd definitely have dressed-or shall we say, under-dressed-given the occasion, but I must have missed the memo." He joked as looked at the towel lewdly.

Hannibal frowned darkly at Mason but didn't say a word. The boy had already displayed more than three acts of rudeness and Hannibal wanted him out of the room at once.

"Mason. If you'd be so kind as to leave, please." Hannibal warned gently but sternly.

"Hey come on now! No need to be a sour-puss! After all, you _did_ say we could arrange another time, remember?"

Hannibal felt truly disappointed in himself. He should have known that Mason would definitely follow-up on hollow, empty promises. While technically Hannibal hadn't been the one to agree to another "arrangement" or "meet-up", he hadn't fully vocally objected and rejected the offer either. He hadn't wanted conflict at the time, and thought that playing neutral would work. That old trick clearly wouldn't work on Mason Verger and the boy took everything so literally.

Hannibal wanted to throw on some clothes immediately when he caught Mason's eyes dropping low to his private areas hidden not too well by the towel.

"Although, I am truly proud of my sense of timing...." Mason leered as he laughed his annoying barking laughter.

"Mason!" Hannibal suddenly growled out louder than he'd intended.

Mason looked up at Hannibal over the rim of his glasses seductively. "That _is_ my name, Hannibal. I like the way you pronounce it; so very refined and meaningful."

Mason tilted his head a little in a flirtatious manner while he kept his eyes peering at Hannibal from above the glasses rims. Hannibal wanted to puke right on the spot. Whenever Will did such a thing as that, Hannibal really enjoyed it and found it cute. However, when Mason imitated the gesture, Hannibal wanted nothing more than to bury his fist in Mason's damn glasses and send shards of glass into the boy's eyeballs.

"Oh no need to feel so self-aware, Hannibal. We can't all have good looks, though." He raised and lowered his eyebrows rapidly in another act of a flirtatious manner, and Hannibal abruptly opened the door and moved aside to reveal the empty hallway before them.

"Out, now." Hannibal was through with playing the polite card. Mason Verger clearly was not hearing him out as he had originally hoped; refined methods would not work on this creature.

"This is not attractive at all." Mason ground out through his clenched teeth.

Hannibal turned his nose in Mason's direction, clearly portraying a look of sheer disgust for the younger boy. "Fair enough, Mason." He chopped out hastily.

"But if you're into the whole: "I-run-and-you-come-running-after-me-in-the-dark-thing, I can most _certainly_ prove to be a worthy playmate..." Mason finished, adding extra emphasis on the word 'playmate'.

"Out."

"You keep pushing me away, but I see right through this little game and masquerade, Hannibal." Mason kept urging as he walked forward but towards Hannibal rather than the doorway and out into the hallway.

Hannibal backed up a few steps, stood as tall as he could, and glared down at the slightly shorter boy. "Leave!"

Mason smiled a sweet smile, almost resembling a little angelic child in fashion. "Whatever you say, lover."

"Don't you dare ever refer to me as that!" Hannibal yelled out after him, not really caring who would hear for the moment.

"Anything you say, pumpkin." Mason turned and blew Hannibal a little kiss as he laughed and put a foot into the hallway before he turned back to face Hannibal.

"Sure you don't want me to stay and give you a backrub? I've been told I have such wonderful, talented hands-"

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline that offer." Hannibal eyed the hallway and debated exiting the room himself for a few seconds. He desperately needed to get away from Mason Verger before he lost all his control and sliced the boy's throat open.

"Anything you wish." Mason said as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out. He was barely a few feet out into the hallway, when he turned and looked at Hannibal with the most serious, stern expression Hannibal had ever seen him display.

"You know, animals are great. I love them with all my heart and soul," he paused and pushed his glasses up on his nose with one finger, "...but I cannot help but feel a little irate at times with them. They're fun and exciting, and we can learn a lot from them and from little glimpses into their world. But one thing they won't ever do is tell you to stop. That's where the real fun is cut off, and that's what upsets me." He grinned at Hannibal sneakily before he smiled and batted his eyelashes before walking off down the hallway and to the right and finally disappearing out of sight.

 _"Out of sight, but never out of mind..."_ Hannibal thought to himself as he shut the door and locked it extra tight that night.

He padded back to his bathroom and stared at his own reflection in the mirror. The little mirror was drenched in dew and steam, and Hannibal had to run a hand through the glass surface a few times before he could properly see himself back.

He stood in front of the sink, with his lean arms gripping the sides of the sink tightly. He had no idea how to piece together what had just happened, but he decided he wasn't going to. There was no use when it came to matters as delicate as this. Only one thing could be done, and it had to be done properly and quickly as soon as possible.

Hannibal exited the damp bathroom quickly, his eyes set to stone as he walked into his bedroom and began dressing into a simple black sweater, black track pants and jogging shoes, and put on gloves.

He took one look around the bedroom and closed the door behind him gently as he headed for the front door to go out.

**************************************************************************************************************

"Door!" Charlie was the first to answer the rapid banging and pounding on the house's front door. Philip also walked up behind Charlie, holding two dumbbells in both arms, curling them up and down as he walked towards the door, wearing a confused expression as to what all the commotion was.

"Oh hey Hannibal." He greeted as he looked at Hannibal's dark eyes and slightly pale face.

"Woah...you ok dude?" Philip asked, setting down a dumbbell to rest next to his thigh against the side of his body.

Hannibal gave a half nod. "Will?" Was all he asked.

Both roommates exchanged glances but stepped aside to allow Hannibal inside the house. Philip whispered something in Vietnamese, but Hannibal didn't pay attention to the rude boy as he threw off his shoes hurriedly, and headed for the second floor of the house.

"Yeah he's....upstairs." Charlie said, pointing to the second floor of the house, but Hannibal already knew that and had already headed upstairs.

Hannibal raced up the stairs, two at a time, and flung open Will's bedroom door, which was already open ajar.

Will was sitting at his study desk when Hannibal had burst in, with his criminology textbook in his hands and a pen tucked over his ear resting in his hair with his glasses half-way down his nose; the boy was buried deeply in his studies.

Hannibal watched Will jump up from his seat, his glasses falling completely off his nose in the process, and the textbook sliding down to his lap.

"Hannibal!" He cried.

Hannibal kicked the door shut with the back of his leg, still facing Will with a determined expression on his face.

"You didn't call or text, is something wrong?" Will asked as he set down his book and glasses back on the surface of the desk.

Hannibal simply stared at Will without any words spoken. Will kept his eyes on Hannibal, and Hannibal decided he enjoyed Will with and without his glasses. The boy was truly a magnificent beauty. 

Moments of stretched out silence were the only active things in the room, before Hannibal heard the faint pitter patter of Will's heart beat. It began out with a regular rhythm, and then it suddenly grew in pace as Will looked Hannibal up and down in front of him.

Hannibal inhaled and was taken aback slightly when he smelled Will's salty sweat ooze out from the pores of his skin and entrench itself deep within his clothes.

He suddenly took two large steps in the room across the carpeted floor, and grabbed Will's face in both his hands roughly, smashing his lips on Will's.

Will managed to gasp in shock, and the act allowed Hannibal to forcefully press his tongue past Will's lips and inside the hot wet cavern that was his mouth.

Will moaned and wrapped his arms around Hannibal, but Hannibal had other ideas set in mind and he pushed his body forward into Will's, successfully managing to slam the younger, and more thin boy against the white bedroom wall.

Will groaned in both pleasure and pain when the force of Hannibal's thick body slammed his head back into the wall behind, but Hannibal ignored the sound and began nipping at Will's tender lips with his sharp teeth.

Hannibal frowned against Will's forehead, and increased the force of his biting, feeling Will's plump lips being literally forced in between the vice-like-grip of his own large teeth. He didn't take his lips off Will's, but pushed against him harder and more roughly, trying to get more sounds out of Will. 

Will pressed a hand against Hannibal's chest and gently pushed back against Hannibal. This act angered Hannibal, and he suddenly felt he could no longer contain himself. Hannibal hated rejection more than anything else in the world. Only rude people truly rejected him and his advances, and now that Will had done it, Hannibal took a few seconds before he snapped, his emotions going over-load and bubbling over like a crazy pot of stew over a stove turned to "high" temperatures.

He growled at the back of his throat, and grabbed Will's slender, delicate neck and literally threw the younger boy across the room and onto his bed with such a force that Will had heaved and gasped for air when he hit the side of the bed and rammed his hips against the wooden sideboards of the bed.

"Wah!?" He cried out unintelligibly before Hannibal bounded over to the bed and threw himself upon Will, grabbing both his hands in one of his own, and flipped them up and over Will's head onto the pillow resting on the bed.

Hannibal looked down at Will like a trapped little bird that he was hunting, and he ran a hand up and down his clean-shaven face before he leaned forward and bit at the skin not too gently, his right hand sneaking down Will's body and grabbing at his legs and hips so roughly that Will was sure he was going to leave bruise-marks the next day.

"Hannibal! What the-" Will cried, but was interrupted when Hannibal bit his neck with such an intense force that Will knew for sure he was going to have to cover his neck with a scarf all day tomorrow and probably the next.

"No!" He cried, trying to fight Hannibal off now when he sensed the situation was getting out of hand and was not what Will wanted in their relationship.

He tried squirming his legs free from under Hannibal, but the older boy was quicker than Will thought in this heated moment, and slammed his hips and legs roughly down onto Will's, making him sink deep into the mattress violently.

"Stop!" Will cried in pain when he felt Hannibal begin to tear at his black ACDC band shirt, the collar of the shirt wrapping around his soft neck like a noose.

Will jerked his head back and away from Hannibal's teeth and lips when he felt them sink into his collarbone, which earned a hiss from Hannibal and the older boy grabbed Will's neck in one strong hand and forcefully turned Will's head back to his attention and demanding lips and teeth.

"Don't!" Will nearly screamed. He didn't want to alert his roommates of what was going on upstairs in the room for two reasons: he didn't want a fight to break out between all of them and Hannibal, and he didn't want to face the embarrassment of the situation he was in.

He was literally being groped roughly and clawed at by Hannibal over him on his own bed, in his own room, in his own shared housing unit in the middle of the night. Will knew he was more than lucky that none of his three roommates were homophobic in the slightest. He hadn't exactly come out before them, but he knew they were smarter than they appeared at face value. He knew his roommates had fully caught on to the relationship he had with Hannibal whenever the older boy was over in the house and sitting too close to Will. None of them had said anything or asked strange, intrusive questions regarding their relationship, but the odd chance Philip, Charlie, or Max caught a kiss or two between Hannibal and Will, they would merely smile lightly and walk off to their own rooms or classes without bothering either boy.

As far as Will knew, only Philip was currently dating. He was dating another Vietnamese girl he had met through his Church. Charlie had recently broken up with his high school flame, and was mostly engaging in one-night stands and flings at parties and bars that he came home to afterwards and bragged about before the other boys in the house. Max as far as Will knew, was very private about his love life and never brought a girl home or never went out to meet one. The only relationship commitment he had was with the gym and working out.

But none of that mattered now that Will felt Hannibal tugging at the belt buckle on his belt that rested on the waistband of his jeans.

Will suddenly sprung back into action, and reached a leg up as high as he could with every inch of strength he had gathered, and kneed Hannibal in the back. Hannibal growled but didn't move off of Will at all. It was as if he had turned into a large boulder meant to rest on top of Will and slowly crush the life and breath out of him.

The act however had seemed to trigger something in Hannibal, for he momentarily let go of Will's belt, and snaked a hand up into Will's hair and yanked him up a little from the bed by his curly thick hair.

"NNNNGRRRR!!" Will groaned through his clenched teeth as pain seared through the back of his skull and all over his body as Hannibal forced him up to sit on his lap. Will began to panic even more when he felt the hardness in between Hannibal's thighs heatedly throbbing under his weight, and he tried to move about quickly in order to move as far away from the searing heat as possible. It felt so dirty and so wrong, and Will wanted nothing more than to fly across the room and out the window.

As if he had heard and read his thoughts, Hannibal looked at Will darkly and viciously, his eyes literally appearing cold and dead. There was not a single trace of light shining or reflecting in them as it often had in the past whenever he was with Will and exchanging caring glances. It was as if a new Hannibal had entered Will's room that night and killed the other one that Will had grown to care for so much.

Hannibal leaned forward and was about to forcefully take Will's lips with his own when he stopped midway. He looked intently at Will, and nearly felt his heart drop out of his chest and onto the carpet below the bed.

Will had only one single lone tear drop from his left eye, and it rolled down his cheek and fell onto Hannibal's knee which had entrapped tightly around Will's thin body on the bed.

Hannibal's eyes immediately widened and the old shine that had often been observed within their depths was ignited and brought back right away. He gasped and wrapped his arms around Will's back and clung onto Will as if his life depended on it.

He breathed out in a half sob. "Will! Will! Forgive me!" He cried as he held the boy as tightly as he could, slightly rocking back and forth on the bed in order to cradle and comfort them both.

A cold but firm grip on his arms was the only thing that forced Hannibal to pry away from Will's body and look at him in shame and remorse. Will had pushed away from Hannibal and only gave him a neutral, empty look.

Hannibal turned away from Will immediately, feeling like the lowest form of bacterial life on the planet at the moment. What had he been about to do!? How could he even think about doing it to Will given all the time they had spent together, all the trust that had been established between them? Did any of it matter at all? Why had Hannibal lost control so easily?

All these questions racing through Hannibal's mind were soon extinguished when he felt Will push away entirely from him, but still faced him as he sat on his knees before Hannibal.

"Get out." Was all Will hissed through his teeth, his body shaking slightly.

Hannibal shook his head and tried to lean towards Will to gather him back to his chest for comfort and compassion, but the younger boy stood up from the bed quickly and faced away from Hannibal.

"Go. Now. Before. I. Call. My. Roommates." He spoke one word at a time coldly.

Hannibal gaped like a fish, opening and closing his mouth a few times before he clenched his fists at his side tightly and turned to head out the door.

The minute he had exited the room, Will burst forth and ran to his window, which faced the front parking lot of the house and driveways into the streets. He watched as Hannibal exited the house, hands shoved deeply in his pockets, head hung low as he walked into the night.

Before he disappeared completely out of view into the dark, Hannibal stopped and turned to look up at Will's window.

Will quickly frowned and pulled down his curtains. He never wanted to see Hannibal again. This act had been absolutely unforgivable and Will knew there was no going back, no going forward. Hannibal had taken everything they worked so hard together to gain and destroyed it all in a few minutes.

 _"I hope it was worth it."_ Will thought to himself as he walked back to his bed, wrapping his shaking hands around his own body, crumpling into a tight fetal position on the mattress as he shook and sobbed violently all night long.

********************************************************************************************************

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah! What the hell got into Hannibal!?  
> I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and please forgive he attempted rape scene. Trust me, it took hours to write because of how difficult it was for me. I don't like rape scenes in the slightest, even if later on the characters somehow forgive each other. Rape is wrong, period, and this was a pain to write.  
> Hope I didn't offend anyone.  
> Avixi


	5. Of Witches and Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Hallow's Eve is drawing near, and Will arranges plans for himself and his friends, but no matter how many great plans he has lined up, he finds his mind going back to only one person: Hannibal.  
> Double, double, bubble, trouble.

**Chapter 4**

 

Will hadn't told a single soul about what had happened between Hannibal and himself in his room late that dreaded night. Weeks had flown by rapidly, and with Halloween barely two days away, Will decided he was going to leave the drama and confusion that Hannibal normally brought into his life behind.

This year was going to be different for Will. He normally never went out and did anything special on Halloween, even when his grandmother had been alive to care for him, and even so when Bedelia had adopted him at a young age.

Something about dressing up in white sheets as a ghost, or dressing like a perverted vampire with slicked back hair was not really an interest to Will. He had always given out candy, however, whenever other children had come to his street trick-or-treating. Will merely enjoyed looking at their costumes for a brief moment of amusement rather than for legitimate fun, and he figured this year was going to be different.

While he was not going to go around begging for candy like the rest of the children, he was definitely going to attend a large first year student party hosted by many other first year students and guest returning alumni. Will would do anything at this point to get out of his house as often as he could, and to try and forget Hannibal.

Will had invited Miriam as well as Brian and Jimmy to the party, and all three people had happily agreed to join in.

Will was bustling about in the kitchen of the house, checking each and every cupboard carefully as he searched for the bottle of the chardonnay that Jimmy and Brian had brought him. After moments of frustrated and fruitless searching, Will gave up and rested back against the counter in the middle of the kitchen. The cold marble made him shiver and he backed off of it immediately.

Will had debated asking his roommates to join, but Charlie was going to frequent the bars around town, trying to drink himself to the limit and pick up as many young girls looking for a good time. Philip was going out with his girlfriend's nephews, so he was pretty much in and out of the house throughout the last few days, and Max seemed to be the only one in the house with Will even at this point in time.

Will hadn't asked the older boy, but he decided to give it a shot. He walked out of the kitchen and turned off the lights.

He played with his cell phone as he walked down the short hallway, flipping through his list of contacts, when he stopped at Hannibal's name on the list. Will wanted to right away throw his phone at the wall. He had been meaning to remove Hannibal as a contact on his phone, but for some reason or another, he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Will didn't want to be naive, but he knew that Hannibal hadn't meant to attack him the way he did that night. Something or someone, rather, had either done or said something to turn Hannibal that demented. Will had spent a lot of time with Hannibal, and he just knew for a fact that Hannibal wasn't the type who would ever force himself on anyone at any random time.

Will and Hannibal had had ample opportunities for foreplay and sex whenever they had been alone together in the summer. If Hannibal never once attempted to attack Will back then, why would he start now? It just didn't make sense, the more Will thought about it.

He shoved his phone back in his pocket and reached Max's door; the last door on the right of the upper hallway. Max's door had a large Lamb of God poster hoisted on it, with a few little stickers displaying profanity and plenty of curse words plastered on whatever was left of the white that had once been the door.

Will reached up a shaky hand and knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" Max's voice called out muffled through the thick door.

"Hey, it's Will." Will waited patiently behind the door. Charlie had unfortunately made the mistake of entering Max's room both without knocking and without Max's permission during the last week of September, and it provided him only with a sleek swing at his chest. The bruise had lasted for days on end, but Charlie quickly learned his lesson, as did the rest of the house. No one entered Max's room without knocking, period.

After a few moments of silence, the door was opened and Max faced Will, wearing large dark purple headphones that hung over his neck with the earphones resting on either side of his neck below his ears, the music still on, however.

Will looked past Max at his room; it was a bloody mess as it always had been. "Sorry, am I bothering you or interrupting, Max?" He asked, wondering if Max had even cleaned his room once since they moved in.

"If you were, then why would I have opened the door?" Max asked, lifting an eyebrow at Will as if he had already tried his patience.

Will shrugged. "Good point."

"So what do you want, then?" Max barked as he played with the doorknob.

 _"Cutting to the chase, I like it."_ Will ran a hand through his hair. "Well there's this party down at the barnyard in the little country-side road and farms not too far from here. Did you want to come along with me? I'm bringing Jimmy and Brian-you already met them-and Miriam Lass."

Max snorted. "Why would I attend a stupid first year party?"

Will only offered another shrug. Max was a second year student, and he wasn't seen socializing with anyone of his age group anyway.

"Would you rather just sit here day-after-tomorrow in your room all night long?" He asked as he looked at a pair of boxers hanging halfway off a night lamp on a night-stand next to the bed.

Max looked down and growled at the floor. "Fuck off."

"Your choice." Will turned to walk back to his room, when he heard the door creak as Max opened it more and stepped out into the doorway.

"Alright! Alright! I'll come!"

Will turned and smiled craftily at him. "I knew you'd come around."

Max scoffed. "Smart-ass."

********************************************************************************************************

"Hello?"

"Hey Brian, just me, Will."

"Oh heeeeey man! Long time no talk, what's good?"

Will wanted to hang up when he found his ears were assaulted with the slang talk not even five seconds into his conversation with Brian over his cell phone.

"Well, nothing really. I can't seem to find the bottle of chardonnay you bought me when you last visited."

Brian gasped and then made a sound that resembled a burp, but it still wasn't one. "Dude! We spent so much money on that!"

"Can we head out to buy regular beer, though? Everyone is required to bring at least one food or beverage for the party tomorrow night." Will explained as he tried to ignore the hiccup frenzy Brian had started having out of the blue.

"Oh sure man! But-"

"But what?" Will interrupted. He had been planning a night out anyway, but if Zeller wanted to back out, he was going to personally kill him.

"Umm I got my license suspended for a bit..."

Will rubbed his temple and sighed, trying to keep calm. "Alright, I don't even want to ask...what about Jimmy? He drives."

A silence, and then a hiccup from the other end of the line.

"Brian." Will warned.

"Well he's out with Xanadu. And you know how they get whenever she's in town." Xanadu was the goth girl Jimmy had started dating in Baltimore State High School, and she had moved out of the house and was living in an apartment with her sister so she could work and attend a University to study biology.

"True." Will said as he tapped a finger against his aching temple gently.

"Exactly. Those two fuck like bunnies, man. Seriously, fuckin' nuts, the way they go at it."

"Brian." Will warned again, trying to put on his most serious tone of voice.

"One night after our usual game night, I'm tryin' to sleep on the couch downstairs right?"

"Brian."

"And all of a sudden, I hear Jimmy and her going at it, literally shaking the walls of the room next door so badly that dust from the wall had fallen onto my face on the couch and woke me up!"

"Brian!" Will's tone grew louder, but the other boy did not seem to want to stop anytime soon.

"I couldn't really make out what Xanadu was sayin', though, and I was listening alllllllll night long. He was fuckin' her like the safety and preservation of the world depended on it, man."

"Brian!"

"Sadly Freddy and I never got that far, though. I'm cool with being a virgin still, though! Don't judge! But let me tell you, one night alone with that mouth of hers, and she'll drive you wiiiiiiiiiiiild! Gives the best blowjobs, I'm tellin' you."

"BRIAN!!!!!!!!!!!" Will suddenly erupted.

Brian suddenly gasped and hiccupped one last time. "Hey! My hiccups are gone!" His smile could practically be heard and seen in his voice over the phone.

Will wanted to reach through the telephone speakers and choke the life out of him.

"Can we go to the damn store already?" He knew his tone was begging, but he didn't care. He just wanted to stop hearing about how everyone else around him was relieving their sexual frustrations in the most productive and non-threatening manner without being emotionally and mentally scarred. Not that Will was foolish, however. He knew all too well that College life was not the sex-fest the media and movies had made it out to be. But he was still hoping he would try out new things with Hannibal at least and if it ever came to giving himself to Hannibal, the act would be committed out of love and true yearning; not merely doing it just because everyone else was doing it so they could brag or show off.

"Who's gonna drive us?"Brian's question almost went unheard as Will silently mourned losing his trust and hopes in Hannibal.

Will thought about the question for a while when he suddenly felt a presence behind him. He turned and saw Max looking through the cupboards in the kitchen.

"I have just the person in mind now. Meet you at your place in less than fifteen." Will said and hung up before Brian could mutter out anything else scary and disgustingly embarrassing.

"God damn it!" Max cried when he opened the top cupboard above the fridge and a box of cereal fell down onto his face.

"Who the hell put _that_ there?" He asked as he rubbed his face and kicked the cereal box under the kitchen table.

"Max." Will said as he picked up the box and set it on top of the counter.

Max spun around and glared at Will. "Whatever it is, I'm not doing it. It's bad enough that I agreed to go to the dumb Halloween Party with you." He picked at his spiky dark brown hair and flicked a piece of gel into the air.

Will nodded. "Oh, ok, that's fine."

"Mhm. Gonna go work out." Max said to himself more than Will, and walked past Will towards the basement.

"Although, I thought we could definitely stop for Twinkies..." Will called out casually.

Max stopped right away in his tracks.

"Up to you, though." Will smirked internally.

Max sighed and threw on a dark grey sweater he selected from the closet in the hallway. He grabbed his car keys from inside the pocket, and pulled down the hood onto his dark hair.

"You owe me big time, Graham." He hissed lowly as he threw the front door open and walked out to unlock his car doors.

"Appreciate it, Max."

**********************************************************************************************************************

When they had reached the driveway of Brian Zeller's small townhouse, Will told Max to wait in the car as he ran to the door and rang the bell. A disheveled Brian answered the door, and then put on his coat and shoes slowly as he turned back and yelled at his parents that he was heading out and would come home within an hour maximum.

Will pulled Brian aside gently before he could see Max sitting and waiting for them in the car.

"Yo, what's going on?" Brian asked as he shifted his eyes nervously.

Will pushed him against the side wall of the small house. "Shh. Now Max is going to be giving us a ride, Brian, and I'd appreciate it if you-"

"Holy shit why didn't you tell me before!?" Brian cried, eyes widening as he panicked and ran his hands through his hair and tried to fix his overall appearance as best as he could.

Will coughed and tried to clear his throat while trying to hide his distaste for being interrupted so crudely. "I was just going to ask you to watch what you say and think before you speak."

Brian snorted and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I always do that."

Will cocked an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Yeah!" The stubborn boy countered.

"So you're a liar too now, Brian?" Will glared.

"Ugh! Fine! I will do my best to shut my trap!" Brian said as he rolled his eyes and took a step away from the wall, but Will pushed him gently back against the bricks of the house.

"Wait," he pushed Brian back to the wall before he ran off in the direction of where the car was, "...I know you are fond of Max. So I'm telling this for your own sake, Brian."

Brian's eyes opened up so widely that Will thought they were going to grow over his entire face and forehead.

"Woah...dude...wanna tell the whole damn street about my man-crush? Jesus!" Brian hissed and looked around nervously.

"Just play it cool, and for the love of St. Peter, don't do anything stupid when we get to the mall." Will pushed Brian towards the car as soon as he had finished his little piece.

The wind seemed to guide both boys along forward as well, shaking off whatever was left of the rest of the dried, dead leaves down from their branches and onto the massive piles people had raked and collected in bags in front of their homes to be taken away. A few houses had already had pumpkins, Jack 'O Lanterns, and a few Halloween decorations such as the witches who had flown and smashed into garage doors as well as little home-made ghosts hanging from their front doors or trees swaying in the wind.

"Finally! I was freezing my ass off in here!" Max cried and shook violently when Will opened the passenger door and the back seat doors for Brian to get in.

Brian gave Will a weary glance before he ducked down and inside the back of the little black Toyota Camry that Max's father had given him before he upgraded and brought a newer car for himself.

The car lights automatically went on when the doors opened, and when Brian slid in, he froze and nearly gulped loudly when Max's green eyes met his through the rear-view mirror.

Will closed his door and watched the two boys stare at each other like two blundering fools. He resisted the urge to face-palm. He couldn't speak for Max, obviously, but he was more than fully certain that Brian had moved on from Freddy Lounds and set all his romantic hopes and dreams on Max. Max, despite his harsh, masculine exterior, seemed to be very reserved and shy. Will wasn't too sure about Max's sexual orientation, and for the time being he didn't witness a sign of a growing attraction or even admiration from Max's part, but he figured at least the two boys could become friends.

"Are you going to say 'hi', Brian?" Will asked, as if he was talking to a child rather than a seventeen year old going on eighteen in less than a month and half.

"H-h-hello." Brian said bashfully. Luckily, the car lights had dimmed down due to the doors being locked and closed properly.

The engine's low purr was the only response for a long minute, and Will was about to reach over and poke Max when the older boy spoke up.

"Hi."

Brian perked up in his seat and smiled lightly. "I'm Will's friend from High School. I was over a few weeks ago."

"Yeah you were covered in water and looked like a soaked dog."

 _"Ouch."_ Will thought to himself as he watched Brian literally deflate and turn his head to look out the left window in mortification.

"Where to?" Max asked to Will, even though he kept his eyes on Brian's reflection in the mirror.

"The mall." Will said as he made a silent wish that nothing else would go wrong for the rest of the night.

******************************************************************************************************************

In less than twenty minutes they had reached the mall. Will and Max walked ahead of Brian, chatting among themselves when Will turned and saw Brian looking down at his feet and practically dragging them along like a pouting, petulant child. He suddenly felt bad for the other boy and slowed down his walking pace.

"Hey Brian! Do you want to go check out some new video games first?" He asked, hoping to get the other boy to gain some interest in their night adventure.

Brian walked a little faster but acted nonchalant as Will had instructed him to earlier. "No." He answered and walked right past both Will and Max defiantly.

Will watched Max try to pretend he wasn't looking at Brian and smirked a little to himself. Although Will hadn't lived with Max long enough to even know him partly, but he knew exactly when the older boy was curious, upset, amused, angry, disturbed, disgusted, and intrigued. And Max was absolutely intrigued at this moment.

He was the first to follow Brian to the front doors of the mall, and held the door open for Will as they all entered the warm mall.

Will soon temporarily took his eyes off Brian and Max and began to enjoy the various mall outlets and stores within the mall overflowing with Halloween candy, decorations, signs that read: COSTUME SALE, 75% OFF ALL KID AND TEEN COSTUMES!

Black and orange colored ribbons were winding their way along the stores as multiple teens and young children raced around trying on werewolf masks and growled at each other or put on fake vampire fangs and hissed and laughed.

The pleasant mood was contagious, and Will felt as if most of his troubles had disappeared. He just wanted to live in the present and enjoy the moment before it flew by too quickly.

He walked into store called : ALL SPIRIT HALLOWEEN, which was known to be a widely based Holiday store specifically for Halloween only.

"Hey, Will! Where are you off to?" Brian called.

Will turned and looked back at Brian, who was trying to head into the opening of a grocery store known as Hilly Farms. Max had probably convinced Brian he wanted to stock up on food and Twinkies for the upcoming winter.

Will was about to speak up, when he saw Max's curious eyes peering almost in awe at Brian's thick, dark brown curly hair.

Will was about to laugh out loud and point, but he held back and instead decided to give the two boys a little privacy to themselves. He knew all too well that certain types of people-male or female-behaved differently around friends than other groups of people they normally did not associate with on a regular basis. He wanted Brian to at least have a chance to open up and talk to Max.

"You guys go on without me, I just want to check out this Halloween store is all. Maybe grab some candy. We'll meet at the little indoor waterfall in the center of the mall in say, fifteen minutes?" Will asked, and took off his gloves as he began to feel heat and sweat building up in his hands.

"Sounds good." Max answered before Brian could open his mouth. The younger boy turned around so quickly, he had nearly thrown himself off balance.

"R-really?" He asked as he looked up at Max with hopeful eyes.

The older boy nodded, his eyes never leaving Brian's. "Sure, let's grab some beer too for the party."

That was all Will needed to hear, and he grinned like the devil as he watched Brian and Max turn around while looking only at each other, clearly engaged in a wonderful conversation as they walked on into the grocery store.

 _"I'm such a sly bastard!"_ Will chuckled to himself as he began browsing the Halloween shop, admiring a shelf of household decorations such as dragon and gargoyle styled mirrors and evil garden gnomes with shiny red eyes. He peered at the bottom of the shelf and viewed a few mugs that had vampires, skeletons, and the Frankenstein monster decorated on them. He held a few up close and laughed at their silly designs.

As he walked forward into the store, he looked up and down the make-up and hair accessory isles, tempted to try on a Morticia Addams wig. He tried on a Spiderman mask and a Batman mask, looking at his own reflection in a large, vertical dragon mirror in the far back left hand side of the store.

"Terrific!" Will cried in legitimate excitement for the first time in weeks.

He gazed at himself for a few more minutes before he turned to return the mask back to its spot on the shelf. A thick lock of his own curly hair had come loose under the Batman mask however, covering his eye and momentarily shutting him in messy, confusion and darkness. Will stumbled a little over something thick and rough, and before he nearly went sailing into god-knows-what, a strong grip held him back up on his feet.

"Holy cow! Thank you!" Will huffed as he ripped off the Batman mask carefully by the ears, ready to properly thank whoever had saved him.

When the mask had come off, Will straightened his hair as best he could with his hand, and put his glasses back on. He nearly imploded when he saw he was face-to-face with Jack Crawford.

"Hello, Will."

************************************************************************************************************

"What the hell are you doing here?" Will growled under his breath, his eyes growing dark and dangerous as he glared at the boy that had been the bane of his existence all throughout high school.

"I work here, not that it means much to you." Jack was wearing a goofy convict costume, with the classic black and white stripes and a matching black and white striped hat on top of his head and a little ball and chain attached to his right leg to go along with the costume. On Jack's left shit lapel was a small green name-tag that read: MY NAME IS JACK.

Will wanted to run and just get the hell out of the mall. It was bad enough that he had tried his best not to think about Hannibal for the last two and a half weeks while trying to go to classes, hand in his essay for Criminology, as well as study with Miriam and try to keep whatever bit of a measly social life he had left. The last thing he needed was running into his old arch-enemy!

"Good for you. Now kindly leave me alone." Will said sternly as he walked over to the array of masks resting on hooks embedded within the store wall and placed the Batman mask along with the other Batman style masks on the hook.

"Nice try, Will. I can go get the manager and that's all it takes. My word over yours any day."

"I thought the customer was always right?" Will muttered as he walked quickly over to a glass show-case in the middle of the Halloween store with tons of swords, knives, blades and little decorations such as rings and bracelets inside it.

Jack shook his head. "Nah, that only works in the world of fast-food joints, I'm afraid."

Will threw him a dirty look.

Jack backed away a little at the intensity of the look. "It was a joke..." He assured calmly, though he remained a few feet behind Will.

"I'm very glad you shared it with me." Will replied dully, debating whether or not to make a run for the exit at once or not.

Jack took off the goofy looking cap and sighed. "Believe it or not, I'm actually not going to push you or do anything stupid."

Will snorted. "I don't believe you."

"That's a given." Jack retorted quickly.

"Anything I can help you with, young man?" A soft feminine voice suddenly broke Will out of his angry thoughts, and he jumped from the show-case to look at the back of the store, where a tall, heavy set woman wearing a pointy black witch hat with a purple sash decorated around the brim, with the black dress and boots to match stood, smiling and smearing her blood-red lipstick all over her teeth in the process. Her green name-tag read: MY NAME IS NORA.

Jack cleared his throat, suddenly wearing a serious expression on his face and he put the cap back on over his head. "It's ok, Nora, I was just helping my old high school buddy, Will Graham here, look for some rings for his girlfriend."

Will quickly nodded, catching on immediately to the gravity of the situation, and he played along immediately. "Yeah, mostly browsing, too."

Jack's manager smiled some more and waved her black and purple striped nail polish colored fingers at Will. "Well good luck then to you, sweetheart. I'll be in the back if you have any questions or want to make a sale. Just ring the little bell on the desk!" She disappeared into the back room of the store without another word.

Jack sighed a breath of relief. "Thanks for having my back. She's a real bitch sometimes."

Will smiled lightly. "I think you mean a bitch with a capital "W"." Jack suddenly burst out in the loudest laughter Will had ever heard coming from him. Of course he had heard Jack laughing and rolling on the floors before in happiness, but to Will's ears those past cases of laughter never seemed truly genuine. This laughter he shared with Will, however, was truly genuine.

Will could see little tears coming out from the sides of Jack's eyes as he bent over and rested the palms of his hands over the black and white striped knees of his costume. He cleared his throat after a few long minutes of hearty laughter and clapped Will on the back. "I've gotta hand it to you, Will, I never laughed that hard in a long time!"

Will suddenly stopped smiling. "Well it's ok. Your manager is gone, now, and we can go back to being mortal enemies."

Jack stopped smiling at once, his mouth set to thin and firmly by his lips. "It wasn't about saving my ass! You know, the last thing I needed was you being judgemental. I've been through a lot of shit this past year, Will, I don't need more of it."

"Neither do I!" Will cried out in anger suddenly.

Jack backed away a few steps. "Woah...I'm sorry, Will...I mean I know you always had it rough, no thanks to me, but what's going on with you? You're in University now. You can start all over fresh!"

Will laughed a very strained laugh, feeling like he wanted to break each and every little item in the store. "Oh you think it's _that_ damn simple, huh? The answer is just sitting and waiting for me, is that it?" He paced back and forth impatiently, wanting to leave the store before the conversation got too personal too quickly, but for some odd reason he felt no threat at all coming from Jack. Like Max, Jack was the type of person who tried to put on the guise of being the strong, dedicated leader type in social groups and situations, when in actuality, he was influenced the most by others around him. That did not necessarily mean they were both bad people, however. They were just easily influenced, but Will knew he didn't need to worry about that now, seeing as how Tobias Budge wasn't going to miraculously appear out of thin air to bully Will along with Jack.

"You're right, perhaps that wasn't the smartest thing to say," Jack began, playing with his cap as he held it in his hands, "...but look at the positives, Will. At least you weren't expelled from school and had your hopes for sports college and doing the things you actually enjoy stripped away from you. You were placed in an accelerated program and skipped a full year. You made a great friend in Hannibal, and you're well on in your way doing something that makes you happy." Jack explained wisely.

Will didn't know what to say to all that. Ninety-nine percent of it was true and he couldn't play around it. The only part that stood out and hurt him the most was the fact that Jack assumed Hannibal and Will were still close friends.

Will scratched his head and kept his eyes on the back of the store from time-to-time. "Look it's not that easy. You're right in many ways. We all had a lot of growing up to do, and I'm glad we're having this talk now as opposed to never having it in the first place."

Jack nodded and sat down on a little skeleton designed chair on the right side of the store wall. "Look, Will, we both know full well that what Tobias and I did to you in high school was absolutely wrong and uncalled for. It was bullshit, and I do not expect you to move on and forgive me any time soon. Hell, if it had been a reversed situation, I wouldn't forgive myself either. I was a bloody right prick, man."

Will raised an eyebrow. "So are you sure you're not just telling me what I want to hear right now?" He half joked. He truly didn't feel a lie or misleading motive that Jack had. He honestly felt this was a turning point in Jack's life, and he was finally learning the error of his ways.

Jack shook his head. "Will, I know you have the right to never believe me, and I've accepted that. I am willing however, to apologize for what I did to you, what Tobias did, and even Alana."

Will raised an eyebrow again this time, but it was to show that he was impressed in a positive way with what Jack was saying.

"I know we can't really start "fresh" either, but can we maybe try to be friends? Only if you want it, though." Jack looked up at Will for a long time.

Will tried to spot signs of wavering or a lie, but Jack kept his eyes strongly and firmly on Will's, and didn't even blink.

Will finally let out a sigh. "It's worth trying."

Jack nodded. "That's the biggest lesson I learned after all the crap I went through, Will. Getting angry at someone is easy; but forgiving them and trying to help them so they can help themselves? Now that's the challenge."

Will straightened his posture. "What do you mean?"

Jack finally stood. "I'm talking about second chances, Will. I think everyone deserves them. Of course, certain acts are absolutely unforgivable, but if you know that the other person is not truly an evil person deep down inside, then I say give them a second chance. Life is a living hell as it is, and we're all alone in it. But if you try to find someone who is like you-and that is hard enough, trust me-then why throw that aside so easily? Why not make the effort and go against your grain and natural order to try and make something work?"

Will couldn't believe he was unconsciously receiving relationship advice from Jack Crawford. If anyone had asked him years ago to approach Jack and speak about anything at all, Will would have laughed in their face. But now, he found he was actually listening fully to Jack, and taking in everything the boy was saying.

"I'm not saying you have to be a fool and fall for everything and excuse bad behaviour if it is repeated and no one has learned their lesson. I'm saying that part of being a good person to yourself and to others is knowing when to say "yes", and knowing when to say "no". You decide when, though."

Will walked closely to Jack and looked intently at the other boy. "Jack, you have no idea how much you just helped me."

Jack shrugged. "Another person would have said I was pulling all that out of my ass!"

Both boys laughed loudly, but when Nora cleared her throat from the back room, Jack's expression became a mixture of worried and serious.

"Shit, I better get back to work, Will. I still have an hour left of my shift." Jack backed away a little bit, keeping an eye out and open for customers to walk in.

Will nodded and straightened his coat and pulled out his gloves from the pocket. "Hey is it ok if I add you on Facebook or something? I never really go online, but I'd like us to chat whenever we can and I'm kind of behind on paying my cell phone bills, so you'd be best to reach me online."

Jack smiled. "Hey it's no problem, Will. You can add me whenever you feel you want to chat."

Will waved before he headed for the opening of the store. "Will!" Jack's voice at his back suddenly made him turn and face the other boy quickly.

"Best of luck, man." Jack said in a loud, clear voice before he turned back and headed for the cashier's desk in the small store.

"You too." Will called back before he turned and headed to the right of the mall's large hallway, heading for the center of the mall with the indoor waterfall as quickly as his legs could carry him. He was already more than five minutes late to meet up with Brian and Max.

The colours of the customers and Halloween decorations buzzed past him in a horrendous rainbow from another world as Will sped up the pace so he could catch both boys in the middle of the mall.

When Will had arrived, he was happy to see that the large statue standing in the middle of the waterfall still had water pouring out of its hands. It was a tall, thin woman with short wavy hair, and her hands were holding up flowers that water poured out of in a beautiful downward stream. Tons of children and couples would often sit around the pool the statue stood in the middle of, and toss loose change in the water for fun.

Normally the mall turned off the water display around this time of night, but Will thought that due to the excitement of the Halloween season and in order to attract more customers, the mall had left it on for show.

Will was about to look down at his watch for the time, when he looked to his right and caught Brian and Max sitting side-by-side on a small metal bench in front of the decor bushes and indoor trees that surrounded the back of the waterfall and statue beautifully.

He wanted to take off his glasses, clean them, put them on, squint, and clean his glasses after pinching himself a few times before he finally registered that Brian and Max were sitting and laughing together as comfortably as ever. It was almost as if the two boys had known each other all their lives. He couldn't believe how comfortable they were with each other.

Will snuck forward a little closely, keeping his ears trained hard on the two boys on the bench as he walked with caution so he didn't make a sound.

"After exams it's usually not so hectic. I mean everyone is cramming during the reading week anyway, so by the time exams come in, everyone's getting their immune system shot to shit and it's suddenly flu season all over again." Max explained calmly as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a shiny silver dime and toyed with it in his hands.

"It makes sense, because the body is doing its best to keep you healthy and strong so you can reserve that energy and prepare for exams and then give those said exams successfully before the body goes back to un-hectic mode." Brian explained back as he watched Max fiddle with the dime.

"Exactly." Max said, and he raised his arm in the air to throw the dime into the water as tradition practically begged, when Brian lifted his own hand and placed it on Max's hand to stop him gently.

"What?" Max asked gently, and turned to look at Brian with an amused and happy expression on his face.

"This is going to sound silly, but can we toss it in together?" Brian asked, hiding his face away from Max's in bashfulness.

Will had never seen Brian behave this way, even when he was with Freddy. Will thought he could have been wrong, but in his own personal opinion, Freddy's relationship with Brian had been nothing more than a silly teenaged experiment. This however, seemed to be a more romantic and spiritual awakening for Brian. Will had observed Brian and Freddy do silly things together such as share ice-cream or buy each other coffee and donuts, but this act of tossing in the silver dime in the water together blew Will away with such happiness for his two friends.

Max smiled a dopey smile Will had never seen him smile as he nodded. He leaned in closer to Brian still wearing the dopey smile on his face. "Sounds like a wonderful idea."

As Will watched on with his mouth half-open in shock, Max grabbed Brian's hand in his own gently, stroking the skin for a long time before he took the dime and placed it in Brian's open palm carefully. He then took his own hand and placed it directly under Brian's as he held the dime, and on a silent, connected internal count to three, he guided Brian's arm to toss the dime high and perfectly into the air and they watched it together as it dove into the water near the base of the statue.

Will wanted to jump up and squeal like Bedelia had back when he had graduated and taken his picture with Hannibal...Hannibal!

Will suddenly felt a little saddened, and he looked away from the two boys on the bench to gaze around the mall. He hadn't noticed it before, but there were an awful large number of couples in the mall tonight. Will watched an elderly couple walk together, with their grandchildren laughing in front of them as they chased each other wearing little shoes with heels that lit up as light bounded everywhere on the floor. Near a gazebo towards the right of the bushes and trees near the waterfall, a younger heterosexual couple sat and made out passionately with their arms around each other.

Will couldn't take it; he needed to see Hannibal at once. He raced forward and pulled out his cell phone, pretending he was texting instead of watching Brian and Max growing closer and sharing their little moment tossing the coin into the water.

"Will!" Brian cried, gasping and straightening his composure, though he did not get off the bench.

Will looked up. "Oh hey! Guys, sorry I was late, I ran into a few people from high school."

"That's pretty sweet." Brian said.

Will wanted to gasp out loud. Normally Brian would have gotten all upbeat and asked until the end of time "Who did you see?!" as he bounced around excitedly, but the fact that he hadn't meant that something or someone else had captured his attention...Will wondered who it was.

"Yeah, so did you guys get the beer and Twinkies?" Will asked.

"Yep, check and check!" Max grabbed the case of beer resting by the side of the bench with a little bag of Twinkies on top of the case and smiled proudly.

Will nodded. "Let's go."

He could have sworn he heard both Max and Brian sigh in distaste.

************************************************************************************************

Will knocked on Hannibal's door impatiently. He stood back after trying to peer into the peephole in the door, but all he saw was a dark home. He had tried calling Hannibal, but he must have turned his phone off, for it didn't even go to his voice mail.

"Come on..." Will hissed through his teeth as he knocked for the fiftieth time.

"Hannibal! I need to talk to you!" Will called as clearly as he could.

_"Where is he?!"_

He suddenly heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and heard his neck emit a little "click" due to the force he had used to turn his neck so suddenly in fear of the sudden footsteps approaching.

He saw two circular gleaming light reflections in the dark hallway before the figure stepped under the lights of the front door.

"Good evening, fellow human." Mason's nasal voice touched Will's ears, and caused the younger boy to shudder from a brief moment before he stood up tall and glowered at Mason. "

You. What do _you_ want? Go to bed!" He ordered as he felt the tension and jealousy rise within him. It seemed as if lately wherever he went, Mason was always lingering by, observing him. Will didn't want to know what reasons the boy had for this odd behaviour and frankly, he didn't care; he just wanted Mason to go away and act like a normal human being for once.

"I'm sorry to inform you of this depressing piece of news, but Hannibal isn't home." Mason looked down at his fingernails, his dirty blonde eyebrows set tightly on his forehead as if he was concentrating on solving the most difficult math question.

"I figured that out on my own, but thank you for lending me your expertise, Mason." Will said sarcastically as he reached into his book bag that hung over the right side of his body and pulled out a little notebook and pen.

"No, I mean he hasn't been home all day today." Mason whispered, eyes still on his fingernails.

Will glared at Mason, but started writing in the notebook immediately. "Alright then."

Mason lowered his hand and smiled at Will, though his left eye twitched a few times. "Would you like to come inside my room and wait for him? I'm sure he'll be home before you know it."

Will kept writing. "No."

Mason snickered and put on his best show-man voice. "Is that your final answer, young Mr. Graham?"

Will didn't move a muscle. Only the light scratch of the pen on the paper was heard for stretched out moments of time. Finally Will put his pen back to rest on his ear.

"Good night, Mason." He put the pen in his schoolbag but kept his eyes and sight off of Mason. He wanted to have dreams tonight; not horrible nightmares.

"Too bad; I'd really enjoy your time and company..." Mason said as he opened his door and walked inside the room. He paused and watched Will for a few seconds before he closed and locked the door.

Will finished writing, and looked down at his note for Hannibal.

**Hannibal, we need to talk. I have taken a lot of time to think for myself, and I want us to pull through together through every hurdle and obstacle we find in our way. The path won't always be clear and obvious, but having you in my life is the path in and of itself. I don't want to deviate from that. I need you in my life, and I am ready to talk calmly with you whenever you are free.**  
**I still care for you from the bottom of my heart, and I doubt it will ever change.**  
**Will.**

He smiled a half smile and leaned down to rest on his knees as he slid he note under the door carefully. He stood and looked at the door for a few seconds before he turned and walked down the hall towards an elevator.

He closed his eyes and sighed when the doors opened, and he stepped inside and got ready to head home and to bed.

Once Will's elevator door had closed, the only sound in the empty hallway was the buzzing of the vents and heaters. Then, as if on a cue, a small "click!" was heard, followed by the groaning of door hinges.

Mason Verger slowly opened his dorm room door, and poked his head out into the hallway, facing Hannibal's door.

He opened his mouth, chewing bubble-gum and blew air into the gum and giggled when it filled with air and let out a small "Pop!" once it could not contain any more air.

Mason crept out mischievously into the hallway, swinging his hands back and forth playfully. He leaned down, resting on the balls of his feet, and then gently lowered his chest and stomach to rest on the floor. He peered into the room through the space resting at the bottom of the door between the floor and the door itself, and he took in a deep breath.

"Hmmmm cozy home sweet home." He murmured to himself.

He blew his bubble-gum once more, and then popped it. He took one last peek into the hallway around him, and when convinced no one was around or approaching, he took out his bubble-gum from his mouth, playing with it as if it were play-dough for a few seconds before he rolled it between his thumb and index finger. Mason rolled and rolled the gum until it became a tight, medium sized ball.

He then rolled the little gum ball forward and under the door, his eyes set on the note that was resting on the clean wooden floor of the room. He squinted and grunted a little, smashing his glasses against the bottom of the door as he struggled to guide the gum ball with his fingers so it would land on the note paper.

After a few seconds, the gum ball latched onto the note.

"Gotcha." Mason hissed, and he withdrew his fingers from the crack under the door carefully and slowly. The gum-ball stopped at the edge of the bottom of the door, but Mason was able to slide the paper out from under the gum-ball carefully anyway. He pressed his cheek against the door as tightly and closely as he could, as his fingers felt around for the gum-ball. He grabbed it within seconds and pulled it out from under the door as well.

He sighed and cheered internally as he held up the paper to the light in the hallway. He leapt to his feet and laughed and took a bow in the direction that Will had left in.

"Clever strategy, but not on my watch, Willy boy." He cheered and danced towards his own room before ripping the little note into shreds and tossing it into his garbage can as he danced and shut the door with his feet foxily, finally encasing the hallway in complete darkness.

Only Mason's faint giggles were heard through the other side of the door all night long straight through until the early light of morning shone through the hallway windows.

*********************************************************************************************************************************

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mason, you piece of human filth. You big pile of excrement!!!  
> Don't kill me for the cliff hanger. Seriously. 
> 
> Avixi 
> 
> P.S. Brian and Max make such a sweet couple, no? Teehee.


	6. All Hallow's Eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Halloween party has just begun, but so has Mason's own little sadistic party as he carries out what he has in store for Hannibal and Will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: ATTEMPTED RAPE ONCE AGAIN, VULGAR AND DISTURBING LANGUAGE TOO!

**Chapter 5**

 

It was Friday morning and Halloween. Will knew that the day that lead into the weekend and the world's most annoying holiday combined into one was never the best combination to face; especially if you were young.

All day throughout the day, Will had walked past many vampires, ghouls, goblins, werewolves, Anime characters, game characters, and Slasher Villain characters around campus. A few Freddy Kruegers ran around campus, waving their home-made sharp gloved claws at people, while a few Pinheads and Jason Voorhees students took photos and modeled with other dressed-up students.

In Will's one o'clock to three o'clock Criminology class, the professor could barely contain the rising tension and excitement in the classroom. A few girls dressed up like the Devil, wearing long bright red thigh-high boots with devil horns and blood red nail polish and lipstick pranced around flirting with everyone in the room practically, while a student dressed as Ghost-Face from "Scream" would sneak behind rows of desks and seats and pop up from behind them and scared the shit out of various students who tried to take notes and do their work.

Eventually, the professor, named Dr. Pembry, had had enough of the silly acts, and let out the class a good half hour early. Will texted Miriam immediately so they could meet up and have a quick late lunch before getting ready at Will's house with Max before they could go pick up Brian and Jimmy for the party tonight.

**I'm at the parking lot already. Shouldn't be too difficult to spot me. I'm not wearing a costume. Probably the only one on campus. -Will**

He sighed as he slung his bag and cover over his shoulders and leaned against a wall watching students throw candy at each other as they laughed and screamed, chasing each other around their cars and just causing an over-all riot.

Will's phone soon buzzed back.

**I see you. You're going as a high school student this year? Lol-Miriam**

Will frowned slightly. He wasn't one to ever use slang terms in texts and chats such as "lol" or "lmao", and he wasn't expecting Miriam to do the same thing.

**I don't see you. What's this creeper thing you got going on?-Will**

He texted back quickly before a strong wind settled down and literally bit at his fingertips. Will shivered and shoved his phone in his coat pocket. How much longer was Miriam going to take?

Will knew she was bringing her costume to school today to work on it in between classes. She wouldn't tell him what she was going to go as, and he only asked twice. He knew it was a lost cause trying to convince her to let him in on the secret, and he was about ready to implode from all the anticipation.

 **Taaaadddaaaa!** He looked up with confused eyes when the text was sent. Will's vision suddenly went entirely black. He screamed as his head slammed back against the brick wall of the University, trying to catch his glasses as they slid off his nose from the sudden, heavy impact upon the hard brick wall.

When he had readjusted his glasses, Will looked up and his jaw dropped open. Before him stood a Catwoman! Well, it was technically Miriam Lass dressed up as Catwoman from the new Arkham City Batman game.

Miriam had lovely, sexy thigh high black laced boots, with black tight spandex wrapped tightly around her body, with a cute cat mask and yellow-green goggles pushed down to cover her eyes. She even had the whip to go along with the entire costume, and it loosely wrapped itself around her waistline.

"Meeeeooooorrrwwww!" She purred out seductively, and raised her left hand, which had false-but-home-made-cat claws, and she playfully swiped at Will's chest.

"What the-?"

"Amazing, isn't it?" She lifted the goggles from her eyes to reveal heavy black make-up around her eyes.

"Miriam, you look fantastic!" Will cried, admiring the entire costume bit-by-bit.

"I know!! I worked on it all last night and I wanted to surprise you!" She pranced around on her tip toes happily.

Will nodded in approval. "You certainly have!"

Miriam stopped prancing about. "What time is it? I think we should head over and start getting ready!" The excitement was far too evident in her voice and it made Will smile.

Will was about to check his phone for the time, when a hand slammed down on his shoulder. Will didn't cry out, but he leapt away from the hand quickly, hands turning back to protect himself.

"Woah! Easy there tiger!" Will and Miriam both let out a sigh of disappointment as they faced a costume-less Mason Verger.

Mason stood with his shoulders slightly hunched, his usual bed-hair messily about his forehead, glasses slightly fogged due to the damp, colder weather. He was wearing his Nazi-like thick heavy coat, with black leather gloves covering his hands. He looked Will up and down, and then Miriam.

"H-h-hi....Mason." Miriam said slowly, trying to look anywhere but in Mason's direction.

"Cat got your tongue?" Mason said, as he turned to the silent, gaping Will.

"Oh ha-damn-hardy-ha." Will said, after finally finding the strength of his vocal cords and commanded them to open up.

"Life of the party, I know." Mason showed his white teeth and snickered.

Miriam shifted behind Will uncomfortably, and then poked him in the back with a finger.

"Oh, uh, we better get going, Mason. I promised Miriam lunch and then we're heading to a Halloween party."

Will wanted to slam his head into a brick wall as soon as he said that. He hadn't meant to give away where they were going to Mason; it honestly had just slipped out. He was truly regretting it when Mason winked slowly at Will.

"Sounds like a plan and a half! Hey, why don't you both come with me? I'll buy you lunch. My treat!" He pushed his glasses up with his thumb awkwardly.

Will shook his head. "N-n-no thanks, Mason." He tried backing away, but bumped into Miriam, who yelped in reply to his heavy weight being placed on her boot.

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much!" Mason barked out in his annoying, cringe-worthy laugh. He pulled out his car keys from his jacket, and pressed them. A loud "CLICK! CLICK!" echoed throughout the now empty parking lot, as Mason's silver 2014 Toyota Prius unlocked its doors for them.

Mason bowed and gestured towards the car. "I escort thee, fair guests, to my horse and cart." He laughed again, snorting disgustingly as he wiped saliva from his lips.

Will looked back at Miriam, who gave him a look that said: "We don't have any other choice."

They both hung their heads low, as they walked towards the car. Will was about to open the back doors of the car, when Mason raced ahead and blocked him.

"Ah-ah-ah, Will, you should know that ladies go first..." He smiled at Miriam while he waved his finger mockingly at Will, and opened the door for her. She quickly complied, sliding into the backseats, her cat ears the only things barely visible behind the darkly tinted glass.

Mason walked to the passenger car door and opened it, waving his hand in a chivalrous manner. "Will." He muttered as he waited for Will to slide in the seat.

Will gave Mason the best dirty look he could muster up, and sat down, throwing his schoolbag almost violently at the bottom of the car in front of his feet.

Mason gracefully and gently closed the door behind Will. But before he made his way over to the driver's side, he bent down and waved at Will from the other side of the window almost in a taunting manner.

*******************************************************************************************************************

Hannibal's rented apartment door opened up, and a very exhausted Hannibal stepped in, taking off his shoes slowly. He closed the door behind him and made his way over to his answering machine, and pressed the button.

 **"You have three new messages!"** The voice almost merrily sang out.

Hannibal walked into his small kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He felt absolutely parched, even though he had had two proper meals during his work day earlier today. It simply had been yet another busy day at the hospital; Hannibal had been running around all day practically, running errands for others and trying to keep as alert as possible. He feared it would only get worse as the days grew darker and colder. It would be flu season soon, which meant he'd have to definitely work over-time.

**"Good evening, Hannibal, it's Dr. Paun calling. I just wanted to let you know I have organized your new schedule for next week already, and I have left it with the receptionist at the front desk. Pick it up whenever you like, take care and enjoy your weekend."**

The machine beeped loudly once the message was heard. Hannibal finished his glass of water, and then began to rinse it carefully and delicately. He felt a little uneasy, as he had been expecting a message from Will. He knew what he had done to the boy was absolutely horrendous and cruel, but he wanted to explain himself properly to Will. Hannibal was always in favour of discussion, and he wanted to tell Will what had transpired between himself and Mason Verger without it sounding nearly as odd and atrocious as possible. Hannibal was very well aware that Will was more sensitive and delicate than he wanted to let on, and he knew he would have to frame the topic very carefully. He had taken his time to think it through, and nearly had a well-planned explanation before his cell phone had died. Hannibal tried to fix the battery of the device, and mentally cursed himself for not giving Will his home phone number instead just in case. But it was too late anyway and he wanted Will to also have enough time to himself and his studies before things got too complicated.

 **"Hello, Hannibal Lecter. Are you tired of those pesky, annoying Internet ads that seem to pop up no matter how many times you click out of them and try to cancel them? We, here at Google-"** Hannibal growled and slammed his finger on the "NEXT" button. He had no patience or energy to hear about spammers and zombie bots calling him for more money as they promised false services.

The machine beeped for the last message.

 **"Hannibal, darling, why won't you answer my calls? I'm getting so chilly and lonely without you at nights....you keep rejecting me, and this cat-and-mouse game cannot go on forever. There's a party tonight, an All Hallow's Eve party at the Milton farm located just West of the University Campus, should be roughly a thirty-five minute drive from your apartment, so why don't we just relax, kick back, have some laughs, and chat over some drinks? I hear Will Graham will be attending the party too.....see you there, do not disappoint me. Raaawwwrrrr."** Mason's bizarre message and its implications went unheard as soon as Hannibal heard that Will would be attending the party. Knowing that Mason never lied about these manner of topics, Hannibal threw on his coat, and gathered his car key hurriedly as he headed over to his front door.

He had his hand on the doorknob, when he closed his eyes and frowned tightly. Something really didn't smell right....he inhaled deeply. He smelled someone else....he bent down quickly on the balls of his feet, and sniffed at the door, the carpet, and finally rested down on to the carpet. He felt around, eyes still closed.

He suddenly pictured someone bent down onto the floor on the other side of the door. Their scent flowed out of their body, and smothered itself all around his door and mixed into the air that got sucked into his apartment by the vents. Mason Verger! What had Mason been doing on the floor in front of his door?

Hannibal knew this was all the more reason to head to the party. He stood up abruptly, and threw open the door, locking it hurriedly behind him as he headed for the elevator, fire practically burning in his eyes.

**********************************************************************************************************************

Dining with Mason Verger had been a quick, but nonetheless an awkward moment. Mason had bought Will and Miriam some expensive, but delicious chicken curry from what he claimed was his favourite Indian restaurant not too far away from Will's shared house. They all munched on their meals awkwardly in the car as Mason sipped some orange juice.

"Those spices always burn me to the very bone, but well worth it!" He laughed happily as he drove slowly down the streets.

Will looked in his rear-view mirror and saw that Miriam had her phone out and was texting. He wanted to know who she was texting so badly that she wouldn't participate in the conversation or keep her eyes out for him as Mason leaned in his seat a little close to Will.

"Yes...thanks, Mason." Will offered as he tried to move closer to the window and away from Mason's piercing gaze. Mason was still able to drive perfectly, his hands on the wheel despite his body posture leaning towards Will.

Mason looked deeply at Will, his eyes following his every move with purpose.

"Eyes on the road, Mason!" Will hissed as he turned and looked out his side of the window fearfully. Why did Mason have to be such a creep?

"Sorry Will, but I was going to inquire where your little friends live so we can pick them up for the party!"

Will was about to protest, but Miriam called from the back of the car: "They live roughly fifteen minutes from here! They're both waiting for Will and Max at Brian Zeller's house!"

Will turned and glared at her. "Miriam!"

"Thanks darling." Mason winked at her again and drove on forward. "Address, Will?"

*********************************************************************************************************************

It was nearly five o'clock by the time Mason had picked up Brian Zeller and Jimmy Price. Miriam had raced inside Brian's house to collect both boys, while Mason and Will waited in the car together. Mason hadn't said a word to Will, to Will's shock and amazement. He only watched him out of the corner of his eyes like a hawk ready to attack a defenseless field mouse.

The drive back to Will's house had been even more silent. Brian had tried to crack a few jokes, but no one in the car laughed with true joy and happiness. Miriam broke out into a weary half-smile, while Jimmy tried to silence his friend, throwing him odd looks as they sat in the back seat with Miriam.

Once they had pulled in the driveway of the house, they found a very worried-looking Max sitting on the front door steps. Max was wearing a pirate shirt with the trade-mark skull and crossbones on the front, with a black eye patch covering his left eye. He wore tattered jeans and black All Star shoes. He stood up when the car parked and Brian immediately popped out from the back seat.

"Hey! Where were you?! I thought I was supposed to get you?" He held out a hand before Brian, but quickly placed his hand back down to his side once he saw Will, Miriam, Jimmy, and Mason exit the car.

Brian gave him an apologetic glance. He was about to speak, when Mason proudly marched over with his arm outstretched, still covered with his black leather glove. "Mason Verger at your service!"

"Errr, Max Flannigan." Max shook Mason's gloved had quickly, and drew himself closer to Brian.

Jimmy and Miriam exchanged nervous glances as Will mouthed "Sorry" to Max.

"So umm, how are we gonna do this?" Jimmy piped up.

Max stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared blankly at Mason, clearly objecting to the boy's presence. "Well I don't mind taking a few people in my car. Don't want to give Mason trouble."

"Oh it's no-"

"I'm going with Max!" Brian interrupted Mason's reply as he quickly ran behind Max and hid himself from view.

Max nodded. "Works for me." Max stood proudly and tall before Mason, the posture alone threatening enough. It was as if Max was saying that he wanted Mason to stay as far away from both himself and Brian as much as possible.

Mason seemed to have taken the hint, for he turned to the rest of the students around him. "Everyone else, hop on board!" He rubbed his hands together cheerfully.

"Let's just have a moment to gather ourselves, Mason." Will glared as he took off his coat and schoolbag.

"Yeah man, the party starts at six. It's only five-forty now. We can be a little late, it's all good." Jimmy said as he followed Will into the house.

Miriam's high heel boots clicked behind them as well as she took off her cat mask and sighed. He hair was done up in a tight, neat bun this time. She wore bright red lipstick that Will had somehow failed to notice. "I need a drink." She headed for the kitchen quickly, shaking her head back and forth.

Will wanted to apologize to her and to everyone else, but he felt there was no need; the damage was already being done. Mason refused to leave, and while Will was grateful for the food and the rides, he just didn't wish to associate with Mason Verger any further. Everything Mason did seemed very forced, and not at all genuine and out of the kindness of his heart. He also seemed to give off the vibes that if anyone disobeyed him or disagreed with him, they would suffer immensely and immediately be pegged as an enemy. Will didn't need any more enemies or drama, so he decided to co-operate for the time being. He just hoped Mason would soon grow bored of this game and leave them all alone after the party.

"Where's the beer?" Will asked Max as the older dark haired boy sat next to Brian at the kitchen table.

Max sighed. "Already packed in the trunk of my car, relax." He ran a hand through his hair today, as it was not held up in spikes, and not gelled like it normally was. Will thought Max looked younger and even more gentle without that gel shit in his hair. He looked more calm and more approachable just as he was.

"Awww, not willing to share?" Mason rudely interrupted as he took off his coat and threw it down onto a chair and sat down next to the boys, kicking his booted feet up onto the kitchen table.

"Hey! We eat here!" Max growled as he shoved Mason's feet off the tabletop.

Mason snickered. "Should have said so earlier."

Max was about to stand up, when Brian held out a calm hand in front of him before he dove forward for Mason. Brian looked up pleadingly at Max, while Mason on the other hand, threw him a look that said: "Do it, I dare you."

Max sat back down in his seat next to Brian and sighed wearily. Mason's eyes seemed to shine fiendishly as he continued to snicker. "Atta boy." He whispered.

Miriam's heels clicked back towards the table. "I want to get out of here. It's five to six." She said as she looked intently at Will rather than Mason. She held her cat whip limply in her hand and put her cat mask back on with the goggles covering her eyes, on purpose for sure.

"Yeah it's getting dark and I don't want to drive all the time in the dark." Max muttered as he stood up with Brian next to him as if attached to him by an invisible string.

"Shame. I was hoping for a tour around your lovely home." Mason stated sarcastically.

Max glared. "Oh you want a tour, rich boy? Well fine." He gestured with his arms dramatically. "This is where we eat, the next room is where we chill and pay video games or watch TV, and upstairs is where we sleep in our rooms, separately," his voice grew louder and louder with each passing breath, "...the basement is where I work out and sometimes jack off whenever I am lonely and frustrated!"

"Max!" Will warned, as he stood in front of the older, stronger boy.

Brian and Miriam both blushed heavily at Max's words, while Jimmy simply held his face in his hands as he stood behind the kitchen counter silently.

Max was on a roll, however, and didn't seem to want to stop his rant any time soon. "Would you like to see the bathrooms too? I have tons of porno mags in there too. Anything to pass the time!"

Mason raised an inquisitive eyebrow as he looked back and forth at Brian and Max. "Gay porn?"

Max was livid at this point. He lunged forward at Mason, hands outstretched dangerously.

"Max, don't!" Brian and Will both cried out in unison, Will stepping in front of Max to block the sudden attack, while Brian grabbed onto the back of Max's shirt and pulled him back.

"You son of a bitch!" Max hissed out through his clenched teeth, but calmed himself down immediately.

"It's not worth it." Will warned as he stood like a brick wall between Max and Mason.

Miriam suddenly spoke up as she headed for the front door. "I'm leaving, now. If anyone wants to join me and head to the party, you're welcome to do so. But I'm not staying here and getting in trouble because of a fight breaking out." She opened the front door of the house and headed down the front door steps.

"I'm leaving too." Jimmy announced as he followed her quickly, with his head held down.

Brian tugged on Max's shirt. "Let's go." He whispered into the other boy's ear.

Mason grinned. "I'd listen to your boyfriend." He giggled in Max's direction.

Max was about to open his mouth and retort back, when Will held up a hand.

"He's doing this to get a rise of out of you, Max! Stop playing into his hand!"

Mason gasped at Will and looked at him in mock innocence. "Now why would I do such a thing, Will? I'm just playing nicely."

Max glared but spoke anyway. "Whether he's trying to get a rise out of me or not is besides the point."

Mason stood from his seat at the table finally, and smiled at Max. "Then what _is_ the point? Enlighten me..." He straightened his shirt and pants, appearing to be bored.

Max smiled back slowly. He turned to Brian and looked at him for a long time in silence. Then, without warning, Max grabbed the back of Brian's head, and pulled him close and captured his lips in a deep, passionate kiss.

Brian gasped and pushed against Max's chest for a minute, before he closed his eyes and kissed the bigger boy back.

Will opened his mouth in shock, while Mason simply glared behind his glasses.

Max ran his hands down Brian's body, continuing the kiss in spite of the two other boys. It was as if all of Brian and Max's pent-up frustrations were being let out at this moment, and neither boy seemed to want to stop the passionate embrace.

"Are you guys coming ye-oh..." Jimmy had walked back into the house and into the kitchen, and he suddenly blushed at the romantic display Will and Mason were observing.

Max squeezed Brian's ass briefly before letting the other boy go and smirking back at the trio in the kitchen.

"Do you guys need a few more minutes?" Jimmy said as he rolled his eyes. "I'm happy for you, but can we continue this later?" He added as he folded his arms over his chest.

Both Max and Brian ignored Jimmy, Brian staring up at Max with stars and hearts practically in his eyes, and Max grinning at Mason like he had won their challenge. He walked over to Mason, and stood proudly, his chest puffed out as he used his height to his advantage.

 _"That_ , was the point." With that said, he grabbed Brian's hand and dragged him out of the kitchen and out of the house without even glancing once at Mason or Will.

Jimmy shrugged at Mason and Will, and walked back out of the house without a word.

Mason continued to stare out the door into the night, when Will suddenly threw his jacket over at him. "Drive."

******************************************************************************************************************************

Hannibal stood in line angrily at the gas station, cursing inwardly as his car had run out of gas halfway through his trip towards the farm. He knew he was going to be late for the party, and he was praying he wouldn't miss Will tonight. It was now or never.

Ahead of him, an obese man held a small cart in his hands as he slowly pulled out his items one-by-one and placed them on the desk before the cashier. He was barely through one third of his cart, which was filled to the brim with chips, soda, crackers, frozen pizza, ice-cream, pop tarts, and numerous other high-calorie foods.

Hannibal looked down at his watch and hissed. It was already ten past six. At this rate, he wouldn't be out of the store until six thirty, as a few other people were in line head of him behind the obese man.

Hannibal rolled his eyes and stood out of line and raced up to the cashier.

"Hey!" The obese man cried in protest, trying to move his items out of Hannibal's way, as if the other boy was going to steal them or consume them.

 Hannibal looked at him with a stern expression, and the man was silent right away. "I beg your pardon, sir, but this is an emergency."

He looked at the confused cashier. "Pump number four, here's fifty dollars, don't even bother with the change." He threw two twenties and one ten dollar bill in front of the cashier and left the gas station without another word, dodging the confused and half angry glances from the other customers in line.

*****************************************************************************************************************************

Max and Brian helped carry the heavy case of beer inside the barn as soon as they had found a parking spot in the large car lot close to the farm.

Mason parked close to Max's car, and followed Will, Miriam, and Jimmy into the barn. Once inside, the gang looked up to see tons of skeletons, ghosts, and other well decorated monsters hoisted high up on the ceiling and in the rafters of the barn. Shiny, glittery green, black, orange, and purple ribbons weaved their way around the barn. The lights had been dimmed, but shades of orange and red caused by light toners shone around the barn, outlining the dancing bodies of students littered all around the barn.

At the front of the barn in between large haystacks piled nearly to the roof of the barn, was a long rectangular table. On the table were hoards of snacks, alcoholic beverages, and to the far right side a DJ who was dressed like the Creature from the Black Lagoon costume. He ran his webbed hands over the stereo system and head banged to the beat of the Metallica song "Ain't My Bitch".

All around the barn were little Halloween games and activities going around, such as bob for apples, pin the knife on the blonde cheerleader, darts, Twister, and balloon animal making. Will watched his group of friends (save Mason Verger) scatter around the barn.

Jimmy walked over to the large barrel of water on the left side of the barn away from the dancing crowd as he watched a few young girls dressed as Sailor Moon characters bob for apples happily as they giggled and jumped around with the music beat.

Brian and Max headed over to the bar located near the front of the barn and sat down on stools as they gathered drinks and chatted among themselves, while Miriam soon found a Joker and Harley Quinn costumed couple to dance and chat with in the center of the barn on the dance floor.

It was just Will and Mason left. Will looked up at the top of the haystacks, where a few male students without costumes sat, aiming the bright white lights to the center of the dance floor as the large crowd danced upon. The light beams lit their way as they danced about happy, having the time of their lives.

Will wanted to join in and do the same, but he couldn't while Mason was breathing down his neck, practically.

"Care for a dance?" Mason asked Will in a sultry tone of voice. Will shook his head.

"Not in a million years, Mason. Go do something else and quit following me!" He hissed behind him as he walked over to a medium sized haystack and admired a few large Jack' O Lanterns that sat at the bottom of the haystack.

"Oooh, I like your orders, Will. Very forward." Mason flirted lightly, but kept following Will.

Will growled under his breath, but didn't say anything as he sat down next to a murderous looking Jack' O Lantern.

Mason sat down next to him, folding his gloved hands in his lap as he crossed his legs. "Wish I dressed up."

_"You don't need to dress up, Mason, you perfectly fit the profile of a homicidal nut-case as it is."_

"Woah, look at Romeo One and Romeo Two go!" Mason laughed as he pointed towards the bar. Will peered on and gasped inaudibly as he watched Max and Brian hold hands and stare intently into each other's eyes before they made out passionately.

"Well, at least _someone_ is amused." Will glanced back at Mason.

Mason shrugged. "I'm happy for 'em. As long as they invite me to the wedding!" He threw his head back and laughed.

Suddenly the music on the large speakers changed.

 **Waiting in a car**  
 **Waiting for a ride in the dark**  
 **The night city grows**  
 **Look and see her eyes** , **they glow**

**Waiting in a car**   
**Waiting for a ride in the dark...**

M83's "Midnight City" blasted throughout the barn while the male students sitting on top of the haystacks at the front of the large barn changed the light shades to purple and green lights and shone them down onto the dance floor.

"Nurrrrrrgghh." Will looked up to see a group of students dressed wonderfully as zombies form a little line on the dance floor with their arms held out in front of them stiffly as they danced in perfect unison and rhythm. The rest of the crowd cheered on, raising their hands in the air and waving them around.

**Drinking in the lounge,**   
**Following the neon signs...**

"I bet you're wishing you took me up on that offer to dance!" Mason leaned over and whispered in Will's ear as the music turned up a bit due to the loud cheering and chanting from the dancing crowd.

"Don't do that, Mason!" Will moved away and rubbed his ear where Mason had whispered into it. A single touch from Mason was absolutely abhorred.

**Waiting for a roar,**   
**Looking at the mutating skyline!**   
**The city is my church,**   
**It wraps me in the sparkling twilight!**

Will wanted very much so to listen to the music and just enjoy himself Mason-free. But he knew that was not an option for the night.

"Why? Afraid you might enjoy it?" Mason giggled, pouting like a child, but moved back to his original spot away from Will.

"You flatter yourself." Will answered as he looked around the dancing crowd. Miriam had removed the goggles from her eyes and was still happily dancing with the Joker and Harley Quinn couple. Will wanted to join them, but Miriam appeared to be having a very good time, and he didn't want to risk dragging Mason over to her along with him and spoil her mood.

**Waiting in a car,**   
**Waiting for the right time**   
**Waiting in a car,**   
**Waiting for the right time**

Mason's eyes darkened ever so slightly as it appeared a plan of a most devious nature was forming in his mind.

"So tell me, Will. Are you still a virgin?" Mason's voice suddenly rose above the music that Will was desperately trying to get lost in.

Will whipped his head in Mason's direction. _"Excuse me?!"_ He couldn't have heard what he thought he just heard.

Mason sighed, running out of patience. He trained his cold blue eyes on Will's dark brown ones. "Have you had your cherry popped? Your innocence stripped away from you? Have you been penetrated to the point where you bled?"

He leaned in close to Will, his teeth bared. "Just how many hard cocks have you had stuffed up in that tight, greedy little hole of yours, while you begged for more?"

"I've had enough of this!" Will stood up and backed away, but bumped into a girl dressed as a French Maid. She yelped and the tray of snacks she was carrying toppled down onto Will.

"Shit!" He cried, but quickly bent down to help gather her items.

"It's ok." She said softly and finished stacking her items back on the tray and walked off embarrassingly.

Mason hadn't stood from the floor, and only watched Will with an eyebrow cocked in question.

"I gotta take a piss." Will announced, more to himself than to Mason.

Mason didn't say a word, but seemed to peer straight into Will with those unreadable blue eyes.

Will carefully grazed past the dancing zombies, past a few couples who sat behind some boards and haystacks, lazily making out and chatting, trying to look for the washrooms.

He finally found the washrooms located near the front of the barn where they had entered. The washrooms had little neon green signs that read: BOYS, GIRLS with little rotten zombie hands pointing towards the washroom doors.

Will walked into the washroom quickly, and headed for a sink. He turned the cold tap water handle to ON, and gathered the water into his cupped hands as he then splashed it onto his face and rubbed furiously. He had lied to Mason in hopes of getting some room and space to himself to breathe. He didn't need to actually use the washroom to relieve himself in the common sense; he needed to relieve himself mentally.

Will shut off the water and looked at himself in the mirror hoisted up above the little sink. In the reflection of the bathroom behind him, he saw the navy blue painted bathroom stalls open, showing that no one else was currently in the bathroom with him.

Will sighed and leaned back down slightly to open the hot tap water once again and wash his hands. He had been sweating so profusely when he was sitting next to Mason as he had never before. He gathered some soap while he soaked a hand and washed carefully, trying to scrub every bit of Mason off his hands.

Will wanted to head home and bathe in the hottest temperature of water in the world so he could burn off every bit of Mason from his body. He felt so dirty and ashamed of himself for even allowing Mason to buy him lunch, let alone drive him to the party.

Will scrubbed and scrubbed for minutes on end until his hands turned pink. When he had had enough, he turned off the water and shook his hands free of the rest of the water drops. Outside the washroom the booming sound of the songs on the speakers blasted on. Will could barely hear anything or anyone else outside the bathroom.

He heard the faint dripping of leaking water from another adjacent sink nearby, and closed his eyes as he felt a headache coming on. He rubbed his forehead and temples slowly and gently for a while, trying to ignore the dripping of the water.

Tap, tap, tap...

Will wanted so desperately to go home and curl up in his bed under his sheets. Why had he come to the party to begin with?

Tap, tap, tap...

Maybe he could go and ask Max to drop him off at home? Will knew the idea sounded silly even in the back of his mind, but he wanted to leave the party and Mason. He was not in the mood for any more games and festivities.

Tap, tap, tap...

Will opened his eyes and felt furious at the damn dripping water. He stood straight and turned around to shut the tap completely off, when he was face-to-face with Mason, who had been standing directly behind him.

"Hola." Mason whispered and leapt forward with his entire body into Will.

"Nooo!" Will cried, as his back and shoulders slammed against the sink violently, while Mason held onto his neck roughly with one gloved hand.

"Shhhhhhh, I won't hurt you." Mason cooed gently, his thumb rubbing up and down the soft, warm skin of Will's neck almost in a mock loving manner.

"Let me go!" Will cried, ignoring Mason's coos and vocal noises to get him to calm down.

Will pushed against Mason, trying to writhe free, but that only earned him a rough squeeze on his neck from Mason's grip.

Will coughed and sputtered as he felt that damn gloved hand tightening its grip on his neck.

"It'll be so much easier if you try to enjoy it, Will, trust me." Mason calmly spoke as he dropped to his knees and nosed Will's crotch.

"Rape!!!" Will cried, but as soon as he did, a few of Mason's fingers forced their way past Will's lips and into his mouth roughly, nearly gagging him in the process.

"Shhhh.....just close your eyes and relax, Will." Mason instructed as he rubbed his face into Will's crotch, his own eyes closed in enjoyment and passion.

 _"Oh dear God, I'm done for! I'm dead! He's going to rape me and kill me!"_ Will began to panic, his breathing becoming labored due to Mason's gloved fingers choking him.

Will felt Mason's teeth at the zipper of his jeans suddenly. He looked down in fear and panic, and saw Mason grip the zipper in between his white teeth, and tug the zipper down slowly with a sly grin on his evil face.

Will began to cry out, and he tried to kick Mason away, but as soon as he had moved his head in fright, Mason's fingers inched their way further down his throat, making him cough and wheeze violently.

"MMMNN!!!!" He cried out, tears falling down out of the corners of his eyes.

Mason stood suddenly, and nuzzled into Will's neck. "Do try and behave, Will. I promise I won't bite....hard." Mason looked at Will's wet, tear-stained cheeks, and leaned forward.

Will closed his eyes when he felt a hot, wet tongue running down from the corner of his eyes down to his chin, scooping up the wet, salty tears in the process.

"Mmmm." Mason smacked his lips and grinned at Will, then bit his lip seductively.

"Your tears taste so good, Will. So pure, so innocent...just like a child...I don't know if anyone ever complimented you on that." Mason added before he dropped down to his knees again, and continued tugging down the zipper of the jeans.

 _"Just rape and kill me and get it all over with, you sick piece of shit!"_ Will tried to stop sobbing, as the act itself seemed to be turning Mason on even more.

After a few moments of not moving, Will felt his eyes drying up, so he closed them and tried to pretend that he was anywhere except the dirty, darkly lit bathroom in the barn. He wished he was back at home with his dog family and Bedelia, laughing happily and hugging Bedelia as tightly as possible. He wished he hadn't taken so many people and things in his life for granted when he heard Mason moan as he slid a hand inside Will's pants.

Will remembered the day he had gone to the park looking for Easter eggs with Bedelia and the dogs, and he pictured himself now, running through blades of tall, thick grass, while the warm summer sun blazed down upon him.

He heard the music outside finish, and a new song began as the crowd outside cheered. Will felt Mason's hand grip him tightly, and he closed his eyes, trying not to focus on the pain searing through his body. He shivered in disgust when Mason tugged at his boxers roughly, grunting softly as he tried to pull them out of the way.

_"Please don't!!"_

Will felt Mason's tongue glide over the fabric of the boxers, and he turned his head away from Mason's eyes as they glimmered in the dark bathroom up at him while his mouth was still at Will's crotch.

Suddenly, the bathroom door opened abruptly. Mason and Will both froze, and looked back at the entrance of the bathroom.

Will felt as if that night his entire world had come crumbling apart. Hannibal Lecter stood in the doorway of the bathroom, his long autumn jacket half unbuttoned, staring at Mason and Will against the bathroom sink with hard, unreadable eyes.

Will suddenly gathered inhuman strength and pried his body away from Mason. He stumbled around the other boy, reaching for Hannibal.

"Hannibal!" He began, but Hannibal turned and left the bathroom quickly without a word.

"No! Hannibal! It's not what you think-" Will cried out as he followed as quickly as he could, despite his shaking, pained body.

"I understand, Will. You don't need to explain. I'll leave you to your planned escapades. Sorry to have disturbed you." Hannibal didn't even look at Will as he made his way through the dancing crowd, which had grown much larger since Will had entered the barn.

Will followed Hannibal out to the parking lot desperately. "Hannibal, please listen to me! Mason-"

"Leave me!!" Hannibal practically roared in a thunderous voice when Will grabbed the back of his coat.

Will stopped following Hannibal, his eyes burning with tears once again.

Hannibal stopped once he opened his car door, and looked back at Will with hurt eyes before he sat inside the car and turned on the engine. He drove off slowly, as if wanting to still stay behind to talk to Will.

Will zipped up his jeans and wiped his burning, teary eyes quickly, shivering in the cold, dark parking lot. He headed back inside the barn, and paused when he saw Mason leaning against the bathroom door.

"That was fun. I want so much to taste your tears once again, Will." Mason said and winked at Will.

He slowly raised an index finger to his lips and pursed them. "Shhhh. It is our little secret." He said with a biting, vicious tone, before turning away and cackling maniacally as he went back inside the bathroom.

Will said and did nothing in response, but walked back to the spot on the floor near the haystacks and sat down, slumping over and covering his head with his hands as he rocked back and forth on his knees and sobbed quietly into the night.

The music blasted on, and no one noticed the shattered boy as he tried to comfort himself amidst the celebration of the season.

*****************************************************************************************************************************

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU MASON!!!!!!!! *Throws a bomb at him*  
> I apologize for stirring up so many heated emotions in the readers even before this point, but I felt it was necessary to add tension to my story! Please don't be mad at me! :-(  
> My poor Will! *Gives him a hug* :'-(


	7. Dark Before the Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very dark and depressing look into the lives of the Vergers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, guys I am so sorry first of all for not updating sooner! I just had to catch up with many readings for my classes, and I am having a small family problem as well as problems just being alone while every single one of my friends is either engaged or in a relationship, so being the third wheel is getting to me a lot, lately!! 
> 
> Hope you guys have all been well and rested a lot, and please take good care of yourselves as the colder weather draws in *If you're in America, anyway :P )
> 
> Avixi

**Chapter 6**

**WARNING: MENTIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF PAST CHILD ABUSE/RAPE!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!**

"Margot, I'm home!" Mason sang in a demented, sing-song childish voice as soon as he unlocked the front door of their large mansion. No one was home, it appeared, for Mason knew his father often worked late into the early mornings as per usual, and his mother out at the salon and later off to the movies. But when Mason walked a little forward into the hall, he saw a pair of dark green sneakers casually resting near a badminton racket, and snickered. His sister was home.

Mason made sure to slam the front door extra hard and he threw his belongings violently onto the floor and made sure they echoed throughout the semi empty house.

Upstairs on the third floor of the mansion, a young Margot Verger sat up in her four-poster bed, and quickly began to panic. She bolted through her room and locked herself quickly in the large adjoining bathroom. She pressed a small ear to the bathroom door and held her breath as she heard Mason calmly walking up the stairs as he whistled a merry tune.

Mason calmly opened the door to Margot's bedroom and gazed about the large, decorated bedroom. The walls were colored a light purple color, with posters of Hermione Granger, a few of Margot's own drawings of the Power-Puff Girls, a few horses, fashion models, and Amy Lee hung on the walls. The large four-poster bed was plain white, a night table on either side of the bed with picture frames of Margot with a few of her school girl friends in silly poses; ones consisting of a cheer-leading squad and Margot at the front and center holding the pink pompoms to either side her face and sticking her face right in between them with her tongue sticking out, another close to the right side of her bed resting on a nightstand was with her and another girl and they had the classic duck lips and the "peace sign" pose, and there was one last picture mounted high on the opposite wall that faced the bed.

The picture frame itself covered the entire wall, practically, and was a long rectangular shape with old mahogany wood decorated about the entire picture as it held it up for all to see. The picture was a hand painted portrait of Mason and Margot sitting in a love-seat in the large front hall of the mansion. Mason had his right hand draped over Margot's shoulders, and she faced forward with an odd half-smile presented across her young features. Both Verger siblings were not even over ten years old when the painter had arrived to instruct them how to sit, how still to sit, and for how long to sit next to each other while he painted their seemingly happy pose and pictures.

"Margot!" Mason sung out as he took off his glasses and wiped them with his shirt sleeve as he peered at the bathroom door. He knew she was on the other side of it, and he skipped across the carpeted bedroom floor happily, as he swung his hands back and forth at his sides.

He stopped when he was right in front of the door and gasped mockingly. "Well! My dear, sweet Margot! What seems to be the matter today?"

He raised his hand and knocked a few times gently.

"Was it boys giving you trouble?"

There was no answer from the other side of the door; only silence.

Mason grinned and pressed his nose right against the cold hard surface of the door and giggled out loud. "Or was it the boys giving you trouble for wanting to play a little too much with the other girls? Making 'em jealous, Margot?"

Margot clamped a shaky hand over her mouth when she heard Mason's cruel words swipe at her as if they were transformed into a bear claw, ripping what was left of her dignity to shreds.

Margot had tried to hide her homosexuality from her family for years, for she knew her father especially would never abide by the fact that she was a lesbian. Margot had a very tumultuous relationship with her father to begin with; the man was a hard-headed businessman and he seemed to favour Mason over her simply and only due to the fact that he was a male. Margot knew her father was every bit the chauvinistic, fascist pig he acted out to be, and there was nothing anyone could say or do to change that; especially Margot herself.

Whatever she did never impressed her father. She had tried getting the best grades she could, but that only earned her a small nod and a "It's what you should be doing, given all the damn tuition money I pay to send you to that bloody University." She had tried being more athletic, working out and trying out for various sports teams, but that wasn't impressive for her father either in the slightest. If Margot's father knew of her sexual orientation, she'd be done for.

"Ooooh Marrrrgoooot!" Mason sang out again, licking a long stripe up from the middle of the door to the top and he laughed.

"You can't stay in there forever!"

Mason had unfortunately caught Margot once when she had invited a girl named Brittany Cutlers over to the mansion. Both girls had been in the ninth grade at the time, and Brittany had recently moved to the private school Mason and Margot attended. Margot immediately took a liking to the young girl, and she sought out her company in hopes of gaining a new friend. For weeks Margot had tried finding time for Brittany to come over, but when you lived with a domineering, dictating father and a perverted brother, that was definitely a difficult thing to walk around smoothly.

One evening, when their father Jacob Verger, had been out on a business trip, Margot decided to invite Brittany over for a late supper. Mason had been out doing heaven only knew what, and Margot decided to take a chance. Brittany had shown up a few minutes late, but she showed up nonetheless.

Margot invited the girl up to her room after dinner and some dessert, and a few movies lead to drinking and after a few drinks, Margot and Brittany somehow had found themselves trying to wrestle stuffed animals from each other; rolling around on Margot's bed and laughing happily. Margot had initiated the first move, and had barely begun kissing Brittany, when the girl kissed back as if it had been a second nature to her.

Heavy petting and groping soon began, but when Margot had worked on the first few top buttons of Brittany's dress shirt, that was exactly when Mason Verger had decided to blast open the bedroom door with a black Polaroid camera in his hands yelling: "Cheese!" and he snapped the photo for "evidence".

Ever since then, Mason had threatened Margot whenever he could and kept her on a leash, so to speak, by telling her he would show the photo to their father and get her thrown out of the house and "banished" from the family if she didn't do everything as he asked, whenever he asked. If she dared ever even think about disobeying him or deviating from his wishes, Mason would often bring out his camera around Margot and parade with the damn thing in his hands, waving his finger about in her face and singing : "Nuh uh uh!!"

But the abuse had gone on for far long even before that...

Margot closed her eyes shut tightly when she saw the doorknob of the bathroom door shake and twist ever so slightly. She had locked the door, but then again, that had never stopped Mason in the past.

"Have you forgotten that I know your secret, Margot?" He whispered from the other side of the door.

Margot shook her head, some of her hair falling across her face and covering her eyes as her body began to shake and sweat profusely in fear and anger.

The doorknob shook a little more, making clicking noises that seemed to call out only to Margot, and Mason's angry grunts were heard from the other side as he fought to open the bathroom door.

"Maaaarrrgoooot!" He hissed in a demonic tone of voice, and without warning, slammed his hand open-palmed onto the bathroom door.

Margot screamed and retreated back a little, cowering beneath the sink in the left hand side of the large bathroom.

Mason sniffed at the bathroom door, as if he were a blood hound out for only Margot's fresh blood. He looked down at his feet and snickered. "Margot, do you remember all the fun we used to have as kids?"

Margot felt the tears begin to run down her cheeks as he spoke on.

"We used to have so much _fun_ , you and I." His voice got more soft and quiet, but Margot could still hear him well enough.

 

_She was barely four years old._

_"Margot, Mason's going to look after you while your father and I go out to dinner with some of his colleagues from work. Do everything your brother asks you, and be good." Margot looked up at her mother and smiled as the beautiful Christina Verger held her young daughter tightly to her and kissed her on the top of the head._

_She turned to Mason ad ruffled his hair. "Be good, son, and look after your sister." She sighed and then turned to look at her husband as he chatted over his cell phone and waved his hand in the air angrily at her._

_"We're going to be late!" He glared at her and turned to the family butler who held open the door for him and he didn't even bother looking at his children and bidding them goodbye as he stormed out._

_"Bye, angels." Their mother soon followed, leaving so swiftly, the smell of her perfume hung about the in the air for only a few brief moments before it too disappeared into the night......_

 

"Margot...", Mason tapped at the door with a dirty, yellow fingernail, "...be a dear and open the door for big brother, and I swear I won't make you cry....a lot...."

Margot held her head in her hands and wept harder, but still made no audible sound. She would not let him know he was getting to her! She was tired of him breaking her down! He wouldn't have that power anymore!

 

_"It's a game, Margot. Kids do it all the time." Mason walked around the chair that he had his little sister tied to with some of their father's rope he had used for tying up the horses in their stables, looking down at her while wearing a calm expression on his face._

_Margot looked up at her brother innocently. "What kind of game?"_

_Mason shrugged. "Like doctor. The doctor gets to see if the patient is feeling well....everywhere..." With that said, he lifted up her little pink skirt...._

 

"You're only making this harder on yourself, Margot. Just open the door." Mason said through clenched teeth.

Margot shook her head and cried harder. Her vision was blurred due to the tears and stinging of her eyes as she cried like she never had before. She just wanted all this to stop; she just wanted to reach out and finally tell someone what had been going on all these years in the dark mansion that was the Verger Mansion. If anyone peered in, upon first glance they would think that the Vergers lived the perfect lives; large house to themselves, excellent family business that was steadily growing, plenty of money, hard-working parents, and good kids. But if they only knew what went on at night, in the dark...

 

_Margot screamed as a thirteen year old Mason grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into the horse stables in the middle of the night. He had dragged her from her bed while she was in a peaceful slumber, and dragged her all the way down the stairs and out the door towards the barnyards and stables and threw her inside roughly._

_He held her face-down as she kicked and screamed. Her screams were muffled and hidden by a thick cloth that Mason had soon shoved forcefully into her mouth, and she later discovered it was her own torn underwear._

_Mason grabbed a whip from one of the hooks mounted high on a wall, and began whipping and beating Margot with it savagely. She bit her tongue and screamed through her teeth, though she knew no one would hear her pained cries in the night and no one would come to her aid. She cried harder, feeling that she was truly alone, and she soon lost count as the whip cracked and cracked across her delicate skin, biting into it repeatedly as it rammed against her skin._

_She felt as if she were going to pass out, but Mason soon threw the whip aside. Margot said a quiet prayer in her head, and hoped he would let her go back to her room, though she was sure she was too weak to even get up. But Mason had other plans, and he lowered himself onto Margot's back._

_Only the horses in the stables that night witnessed Margot's tears falling into the dirty stable floor that she was thrown onto as Mason forced his way inside her body, violating and defiling her for the hundredth time that year..._

 

"I just want to show you how much I care for you, Margot...I want to love you..." Mason pleaded from the other side of the door, though his tapping hadn't stopped.

"Go away!" Margot cried out loud, finally finding her voice and her strength. She wasn't going to let this monster win! She couldn't let him win anymore!

Mason threw his head back and laughed. "Poor little Margot! You talk as if you actually have some power, here. How disillusioned, you are, my dear Margot...I'll need to teach you a lesson, I think."

 

_A hand covered fourteen year old Margot Verger's mouth and pulled her into a stairwell on the third floor of the house when she had walked past with her cell phone in her hands, trying to get a hold of one of her friends named Tasha._

_Mason slammed her up against a wall and pressed a finger to his lips. "Shhh!"_

_Margot nodded, eyes wide with fear._

_Mason grabbed her phone and looked at it for a few seconds before grinning back at her._

_"That your girlfriend, Margot?" He asked as he threw the phone into his jean pocket._

_Margot shook her head "No"._

_Mason's happy facial expression suddenly grew dark. "Oh you're a liar, Margot...you're a dirty fucking whore liar."_   _Each word said bit off a piece of her already still heart._

_She shook her head once again, her tears making her eyeliner and mascara run down her cheeks in a dark sludge._

_"Why, you're even dressed and dolled up just like a whore..." He looked at her make-up and snickered._

_Mason grabbed the back of Margot's neck and pulled her close to his vile lips as he whispered in her ear. "I'm going to show you what I do to liars!"_

_He grabbed her by the hair and shoved her down to her knees. Margot felt the pain searing through her kneecaps and throughout her legs as she came into contact with the dark, hard wooden floor of the stairwell, but she didn't have time to resonate the pain._

_Mason began unzipping his jeans with one hand hurriedly as he looked down at her with predatory, soul-less eyes, laughing gently, his white teeth gleaming in the moonlight that shone through the windows of the mansion._

_"So you like pussy, huh Margot? Well I'm going to help you with that."_

_He pulled down his boxers and pulled out his hard length out from them, the head already red from sick excitement. Mason looked down at Margot and with one hand touched her tears as they ran down her cheek, and started stroking his throbbing length. It was as if her crying and tears turned him on._

_Margot tried pushing back away, and tried running free, but he slapped her across the face violently. She cried out loud, but bit down on her tongue before she could allow more noises to escape her and receive more harsh beatings._

_"I'm going to show you what you get for liking to eat pussy, Margot," he panted and moved his hips close to her face, "...you're so lucky that I want to help you and allow you to have the experience of what a real man tastes like, Margot. I'm going to let you engage in quite the learning experience." He inched even closer with his hips, holding his cock right below her nose and rubbed it across her lips slowly._

_"You get to taste cock tonight, Margot."_

_With that, he grabbed her hair, causing her to gasp out in pain. But once she had opened her mouth, he forced his throbbing cock past her lips and fully into her mouth._

_Margot clamped her eyes shut tightly, trying to drown out his disgusting moan as soon as he had entered her mouth._

_"You're going to put that lying mouth to better use, Margot." He groaned and began fucking her mouth in a rough, quick rhythm._

 

Mason began kicking violently at the locked bathroom door with his right leg. Margot screamed and covered her ears with both hands as she got up and ran to the farthest corner in the bathroom and cowered in the corner of the wall, crying and wishing with all her might that there was a window in the room so she could throw herself out of it and run with all her life as far away from this hellish place as quickly as possible and never look back.

He kicked harder and harder as he cackled loudly. Each time his feet made contact with the wood of the door, Margot felt as if a nail had been hammered deeper and deeper into her coffin. She wished she truly had been buried ten feet underground so she would never see the light of day again if it meant she'd have to see it with this vile demon.

Mason had kicked in one hinge of the bathroom door, and the door swung down slightly to reveal a bit of the bathroom.

"Nooooooo!" Margot cried once she saw the light from the other side of the room pouring into the bathroom. She didn't move from her spot, but closed her eyes and covered her head with both hands and she panicked and tried to imagine she was far, far away from this place.

She heard through her muffled ears as Mason kept on kicking the door, and another hinge burst forth and landed a few feet away from her. She wished she could turn it into a knife, and plunge the sharp, shiny blade deep into her brother's throat. She would bathe in his blood for days on end. She didn't mind, despite the fact that he was the man who had ruined her entire life, and taken everything that she held dearest to her heart away from her in a second.

She wanted to take his life, and wanted to make sure he suffered just as much as he had forced her to suffer. She would do everything to rue the day that Mason Verger would become as helpless and powerless as she had been to stop the torments and violations.

The door finally blast open and it crumpled down onto the cold bathroom floor. Mason stood on top of it as he shook his clothes of some debris and wood as he faced Margot as she shook in the corner of the bathroom as far away from him as she could have retreated.

He shook his head. "Oh my dear, sweet Margot. You should have opened the door when I asked the first time, Margot."

He strode over to her in a few steps, and looked down at her for minutes.

Margot felt the silence settle around her. It was as if someone had turned off the world. It felt as if the entire planet had suddenly stopped spinning, and a dark cloud had ascended upon the earth, enveloping it entirely by its darkness. She felt as if an apocalypse was upon her, drowning her in a sea of darkness and finally suffocating the life from her worn down body.

She looked up at Mason and felt a fresh set of tears gather in her burning, light colored eyes.

Mason rolled up his shirt sleeves slowly, one-by-one as if he were a surgeon preparing for surgery any time soon.

"What I'm going to do to you, Margot, will make the children at the summer camp weep."

She didn't even close her eyes this time.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I write these things? I am so sorry, everyone :-( And I apologize for this chapter being shorter than most of the ones I posted in the past are, I just CAN'T write about child molestation, rape, and abuse for a long period of time (not that I am saying most can). I just can't, and I hope this was 'enough' for Mason's, ummm, douche-bag-ness.... Sorry Michael Pitt, I like you, dude, but your character is a perv.


	8. Common Denominator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannibal and Will try to make-up and fix their doomed relationship, and discuss just what kind of a threat Mason is to their strained relationship after a meal....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: CANNIBALISM AND SEXUAL THOUGHTS!!!

**Chapter 7**

 

Will looked at the white board that was covered with ads and posts from other students in the University normally regarding rooms left open for rent still, used textbooks on sale, math and statistics tutoring, bake sales, barbeques, dances, parties, and counselling services. This was his third time that week stumbling upon the same notice, a light blue sheet that simply read in Times New Roman Font: **Counselling Services, Needles Hall. We deal with time management skills, better study skills, better note taking skills, procrastination, student relationship conflicts, stress management, and sexual abuse and violence in domestic relationships. No need to book first time appointment, just drop in and register with the head nurse.**

Will didn't think he really needed counselling, but given what Mason put him through, and the lingering after-effects that still were with him, he felt he needed to at least drop in for one visit and see where it went from that point on.

Will still felt he was not prepared to tell anyone about the two incidents, especially the one with Mason Verger. Mason Verger was a rich young man of high social standing. Will doubted anyone would believe him if he dared reveal what Mason had done to him, for one, and second of all, he wasn't ready to engage in court conflicts and having the possibility of involving his mother and the Vergers. So he decided to remain silent about it for the time being.

Will was lucky not to run into Mason at all over the first week of November and straight through into the second week, but he wondered how long it would truly last. Despite the fact that Mason wasn't physically near Will didn't mean he still wasn't in Will's fearful thoughts and nightmares.

Will glanced down at his cell phone and shuddered when he saw what time it was; it was nearly eight-thirty. Will decided to head back to his house and hopefully head into bed early after grabbing something to eat.

When he reached his shared house, he felt his mouth water when he opened the door and was greeted by the smell of freshly prepared Asian food. Due to the few cooking courses Philip had taken in high school for extra credit, followed my an entire summer of his Vietnamese grandmother coming for a visit, Philip had learned and mastered quite a number of Asian dishes, and seemed always more than eager to share and boast about his culinary skills in front of the other roommates.

On a normal day, Will would be annoyed with the bragging, but today, due to how tired he was (both mentally and physically), he found he was practically about to throw himself down onto the floor and kiss Philip's feet to thank him for preparing something to eat.

Charlie and Max sat at the medium sized kitchen table, Charlie reading a Playboy magazine with a bottle of beer in his hands, while Max sat and stared at the wall and stove resting against the wall as he waited for his meal.

Will set his bag and coat inside the main hallway closet, and headed inside the kitchen.

"Hey guys."

All three boys smiled and greeted him kindly. "Hey Will."

"Philip, thank you for cooking ahead of time, I'm starving." Will thanked as he pulled out a chair and sat next to Max comfortably.

Max was wearing a shirt that had a picture of Sigmund Freud, only he was portrayed in bright pink and the graffiti above him read: PINK FREUD. Will laughed internally at the joke geared towards the band that Jimmy Price often had listened to.

Max looked down at his shirt and then back up at Will and laughed. "Like it? Brian got it for me."

Will suddenly stopped smiling. While he was incredibly happy for Brian and Max for having established a romantic relationship finally, he found he too longed for one and wanted Hannibal back in his life in many ways.

Perhaps it was by means of association, or perhaps it was a case of merely not having what he wanted, and what he wanted rooted from the opposite of what he couldn't have: a stable relationship.

"That's great, Max, it looks good on you." Will muttered but still offered a warm smile.

"Yo! Charlie!" Philip called from over his shoulder at Charlie, who was sipping the last bits of his beer as he nodded at a page in the Playboy magazine appreciatively, eyebrows going up and down seductively.

"Earth to Charlie!" Max called, and waved his hand in his roommate's face.

"What, man!?" Charlie cried, setting the magazine down onto his lap in anger and frustration.

"Wanna help me set up the table? You look too cozy there." Philip hissed as he mixed the stir-fry and blew the steam out of his face impatiently.

Charlie huffed angrily. "Why do _I_ always have to do it?!" He didn't argue further, but got up from his spot and walked over to a cupboard that was a few feet away and above from the stove and pulled out some dishes.He reached down into a drawer after he set out the plates and gathered the utensils noisily. 

"Hey, Will, I almost forgot, Hannibal came by the house today for you." Philip added, as if it had been no big deal at all.

Will sat up in his seat, his appetite suddenly dying immediately. "He did?"

Max, Charlie, and Philip all nodded at the same time in perfect sync. "Yep."

Will stood and quickly walked to the main hallway closet and pulled out his coat and grabbed his cell phone. He tapped the screen and brought it to life before he made his way up the stairs and ran up them quickly, heading for his room.

"What about your food?! Will!" Philip called after him, his spatula nearly falling out of his hands in the process of the havoc and chaos in the kitchen.

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Will made sure he locked his bedroom door tightly, and he made sure to grab a small undershirt and stuff it under his doorway so none of his other roommates would hear his conversation with Hannibal.

Will had still kept Hannibal as a phone contact, and he was glad he hadn't rushed into deleting him like he had wanted to a few weeks back.

Will paused and made sure none of his roommates were on the second floor of the house before he sat down on his bed and hit Hannibal's number on his phone to auto-dial. It wasn't that Will didn't trust his roommates; he just had never told them what had happened between Hannibal and himself, and he didn't want to take so much time to update them and risk hurting them and causing concern about the place. He knew his roommates cared about him, but he didn't want to risk them falling behind on their studies just because of his relationship woes and drama.

He was in University, now, and he wanted to handle his problems all on his own. He also didn't want to run the risk that one of his roommates spilled the beans on him if and when Bedelia decided to drop in and surprise Will with a visit. He knew that Max was good friends with Bedelia now, and he didn't want Max's sense of heroism to get the better of him if the opportunity ever rose.

Better to remain silent than sorry, Will thought as he hit "dial". He waited patiently, and the phone rang only twice before Hannibal picked it up in a hurry.

"Will, please listen to me. I just wanted to say, that it is with my most deepest and humble apologies, that I-"

"Hannibal, why did you come by the house today?" Will interrupted, though he kept his voice calm and soft.

There was silence for a while before Hannibal let out a tired breath. "I had this strange distinct feeling that what I observed at the party that horrid night was not real...I'm not suggesting I fabricated it, I mean it wasn't in your nature to do that, Will..."

"Mason Verger is more than trouble, Hannibal, and I didn't willingly engage in any activity with him." Will explained rationally and truthfully. He felt himself feeling absolutely shattered still, despite getting a little bit of the situation and its weight off his shoulders.

"He _is_ the common denominator, Will. I do see that." Hannibal reasoned as he sighed on the other end of the line.

Will paused before letting out a sigh of his own. "So what do you want me to do, then?" He asked as he sat back on his back and turned to lie down completely as he massaged his forehead. He felt his stomach ache, though not out of hunger; but out of fear for the unknown of what was yet to come. He hated uncertainty.

"What is there to be done? I sense a lack of trust." Hannibal said softly as he poured himself a glass of water.

Will felt even more thirsty and hungry as he listened to Hannibal drink softly and slowly, as if he was making love to the water as he gulped it down his throat slowly.

Will closed his eyes and practically pictured Hannibal's firm grip on the glass as his lips held onto the rim tightly, his tongue swishing about the cool water in no particular pattern already set in mind...

"Will?"

"Hmm?"

"You moaned, just now. Is everything alright?"

Will froze. He hadn't realized that he had actually moaned out loud...he blamed it all on the fact that he was probably the only male student on campus not getting sexual release, plus midterms and finals were close by. Will thought he was all just one big ball of a mess altogether.

"What were you thinking about just now, Will?" Hannibal inquired softly, his voice soothing and exciting Will at the same time.

"I was thinking about you." Will answered truthfully. He suddenly felt that his headache was gone.

"That's not all you were thinking of, Will. Let it all out. Engage me...awaken me..." Hannibal hissed seductively over the phone.

Will closed his eyes and shuddered, but then came to his senses and opened his eyes, glaring ahead at the open space in front of the bed near the door of his room.

"No! Apparently _you_ think I have escapades planned with Mason!" He cried through the phone angrily. He can't believe he had nearly fallen for Hannibal's bullshit once again, though he had to admit it had started off very soothing and sexy.

Hannibal was silent and set his cup down.

"Will, I panicked and didn't have much time to think. It was a fight or flight situation. Forgive my ignorance."

"So you simply chose to flee? And that makes it all better?" Will asked, looking around in his room and smiling at a photo of his dogs that was near his study desk.

"No. It doesn't solve each and every problem we've been having as of late. But I would like to prove to you how much I meant my apology...I would like to do penance, Will. Please allow me." Hannibal's voice was barely above a whisper, and it lulled Will back into a peaceful state of rest and calm, and he closed his eyes once more and pictured Hannibal sitting in a dark lit room, except for one candle sitting at his feet before him.

He was sitting on an old chair, wearing a black and white custom tuxedo. His hair was gelled back perfectly, catching each and every strand tightly and neatly to reveal his dark eyes that called out to Will and touched every part of his body when his arms and hands couldn't.

"What are you wearing?" Will dumbly asked.

Hannibal chuckled. "You should know by now that I do not engage in the common practice of phone sex, Will."

"Ugh, just shut up and tell me what you're wearing!" Will cried, his voice still as soft as he could keep it. He was relieved to hear the clanking and tapping of forks and spoons upon plates from the main floor below him. He was glad his roommates were still eating and not planning on spying on him (not that they ever had done so in the past).

"I'm wearing a dark blue bathrobe, Will. If it is alright with you. I had a short shift and I had to stand by and observe a surgery. It was very fascinating, you know." Hannibal whispered gently, his voice finally flying through the speakers of the phone and caressing Will's ears warmly and passionately.

Will felt himself start to grow stiff in his boxers, though not from the fact that Hannibal had mentioned he had been observing a surgery; but rather the fact that he had showered and been naked, probably still wearing no boxers or underwear beneath the robe, Will guessed.

"Are you wearing underwear?" Will asked next, patiently waiting for the response he already estimated was coming.

"No."

He mentally cheered and unbuckled his belt slowly and quietly. He didn't really want Hannibal to hear him partly undress himself. That wasn't sexy until Hannibal himself was undressing Will, mostly with his teeth.

Will nearly groaned out loud at that very image. "No underwear? Jesus, you really like going commando, huh?" He joked partly.

Hannibal chuckled darkly. "Yes I do. What are _you_ doing, Will?"

Will moaned this time, his hands finally unzipping the zipper of his jeans, letting the cool air of the room touch his heated lower body, as if awakening his entire body for the first time that week.

"I'm about to touch myself while I listen to your voice." He answered truthfully, feeling completely at ease despite the lingering few thoughts of what he had gone through in the last few weeks. But he pushed it aside and felt he needed this badly for the time being, and that he would deal with whatever needed to be dealt with later on its own time. For now he just wanted to be unhinged and out of control. He couldn't control his lust anymore and needed the release.

"I see. What are you thinking about while you are getting ready to stroke yourself, Will?" Will nearly burst at the seams when Hannibal asked the burning question.

Will bit his lip and suppressed answering Hannibal with another moan. He didn't want this to be all over too quickly. "I'm picturing your naked body right above mine in my room on my bed...shit...." He cried breathlessly as soon as his warm hand covered his aching cock.

"I'm picturing the same, Will." Hannibal confessed.

Will felt he had seen stars as he pictured himself and Hannibal in his bedroom, engaged in a passionate embrace, both of them completely nude and sweating from their heated embraces and touches. His hand gently and slowly moved up and down his length, not trying to seek out immediate release; but a slow build-up to release. He wanted to enjoy this to the last minute.

"I wonder what your skin would look like with my teeth marks embedded in it." Hannibal supplied when Will had gone silent.

Will groaned softly. He wasn't a fan of the biting, but Hannibal's teeth were absolutely to-die-for whenever he used them properly and not too roughly.

"Shit! Hannibal!" Will groaned as he practically felt those long teeth digging into his hot flesh for a moment, and then releasing it playfully and teasingly.

"I ache and burn for a taste, Will. Your scent is absolutely delectable. It's absolutely divine." Hannibal slid his own hand under his bathrobe after this statement, and moaned loudly when he met his own erect flesh.

"Hannibal? Are you-"

"Yes I am. I want to have you spread out before me, Will, like a freshly cooked lamb..."

Will felt a little strange being compared to food, but he decided that it was all a part of the foreplay and decided to go along with it. Truth be told, it was starting to turn him on a lot more than he ever cared to admit.

"You are?" He asked weakly, his cock getting even harder in his hands as he pumped it up and down slowly, trying to still his hips from their circular gyrating motion.

"Yes. I'd love to cover your body with the most rare and exotic seasonings and spices...and then lick them all off with my tongue, testing each and every spice on a different body part. How you would taste, Will. That salty, sweaty skin mixed with Machalepi..." Will stroked himself faster and a bit harder when he heard Hannibal's excellent, spot on pronunciation of the St. Lucie cherry spice used in Mediterranean and Greek cooking.

"What about my cock? What kinds of spices do you think you want to place upon it before you place that mouth of yours on it and lick it all off?" Will asked, trying to probe for more of a pictorial image, but also hoping to turn Hannibal on as much as he had turned him on.

"Oh Will, I believe I will place some Ajwain on your pert cock."

Will laughed gently but kept pumping his cock to Hannibal's image and words. "Explain, please."

"It is used in Indian and Pakistani dishes, and is usually dry roasted or fried in ghee or oil. It belongs to the Apiaceae family along with coriander and cumin." Hannibal spoke each word delicately, as if using his words to make love to Will.

" _Cumin_?" Will asked, stressing the "cum" in the word and laughing playfully.

"Indeed." Hannibal gasped, stroking himself quickly.

He felt his heart race. "Will..."

"Hannibal, what else do you want to do to me?" Will asked, sucking on one of his fingers for a while before releasing it from his mouth with a loud "pop!".

"I want to eat you, Will."

Will threw his head back and moaned, sliding his wet, saliva-slicked finger inside his puckering hole gently. He had never tried this before, but Hannibal was always somehow encouraging him to venture into new and dangerous areas. Not that he minded this, however, for it was bringing him the most amount of pleasure and he had barely begun.

Hannibal chuckled, for he knew that Will was thinking he had referred to "eating" as a sexual act rather than actual feasting upon a meal. Not that the two were mutually exclusive, in Hannibal's mind.

"Don't forget about your hand, Will. Keep stroking your cock for me." Hannibal sensed that Will had forgotten his hard aching desire, and instead focused on other needy areas of his body.

"Oh fuck!" Will cried, and then moved his other hand back onto his erect cock, feeling the tip already wet with precome.

"Hannibal!" He cried passionately.

"I bet the tip is already weeping and soaking wet for me, isn't it, Will?" Hannibal asked, moaning loudly as he spread his legs to better accommodate his hands upon his own throbbing erection.

Will groaned lustfully, no longer ashamed of his feelings as he snuck his hand down further along his body, enjoying the heat rising from his body. He bit his lip almost a little too hard, as he felt his own finger grazing a part of him, deep inside, that only seemed to maximize his pleasure. He felt goose bumps on his flesh, and his body hair stood erect as he continued the motion to try to gain more pleasure from it.

"I can see you spread out before me on a large, white table. I would so very much love to ponder many hours over what kind of stuffing I would use to place inside you before I prepare you for my evening meal..." Will frowned slightly. He didn't like being compared to a turkey dinner, practically, but he didn't want to stop any time soon.

He stretched himself carefully and gently, hoping to add in a second finger and experiment further. It hurt a little whenever he went a little too quickly, but his body soon got used to the pain, and he rode it out in a pleasurable manner. He wished he had brought some form of lube with him, but this was Will's first time ever experimenting in this way, and he got off a little on the lack of preparation. He found his puckered hole to greedily accept and suck his finger right in very gently and he continued.

"Why don't you use your tongue then? Push it forward deep inside me and taste me that way." Will offered darkly, wanting to close off the strange, bizarre fantasy that Hannibal had going and focus on a more carnal form of sexual fantasy.

"That is yet to come, Will." Hannibal agreed and Will finally felt able to slick a second finger deep inside his aching heated body.

"Fuuuuck!" He cried out before covering his mouth with his elbow as best he could. It was getting more and more difficult to contain the noises he was making, and the clanking of utensils in the kitchen had slowed down and quieted a bit. If there ever was a time to hurry, it was now.

"Keep those fingers placed deeply inside yourself, Will, and don't forget about your hard erection!" Hannibal's voice grew thick and heavy with commands, as he softly panted on the other end of the line.

Will felt a bit ashamed just then, because he was making noises louder than he intended, while Hannibal seemed to maintain his own self-control and didn't appear to be losing it any time soon. How was he still so refined even when it came to sexual relations?!

"I can practically taste you already, Will. Though I cannot consume you entirely now, for I only want more for myself countless times again...I have a weakness for your flesh!" Hannibal stroked himself faster, imagining walking into a large kitchen, with a naked Will resting on a counter-top in front of him.

Two heavy chandeliers hung above him from the ceiling, carefully outlining and revealing his small muscles, making Hannibal want to sink his teeth into them right away and memorize their form and density.

Hannibal bit his tongue accidentally, spilling a little bit of his own blood in his mouth. His eyes rolled back into his head at this, like a predatory great white shark about to leap up from the cold sea waters and chomp down on a defenseless, hunted seal, and he stroked himself even faster, his rhythm still controlled and very organized, however.

He pictured himself leaning over the offered Will, taking in the beauty of the various herbs and red and black berries surrounding him on the counter-top, and he plucked one and placed it upon Will's erect nipple. He admired the way it gleamed in the light, and he lowered his mouth to it, biting both the berry and Will's hard nipple in the process.

Will groaned out loud over the phone at the perfect moment, making Hannibal's fantasy seem all the more real.

"Yes, just like that, Will. I am with you, inside you..." Hannibal felt his teeth clamp onto the hard nipple, and he tugged the tip roughly, wanting to see Will's blood painted upon his lips.

"Hannibal! I-I'm!" Will panted heavily, signalling he was getting close to his own release.

"Harder, Will! You need to hit that pleasurable, erogenous zone when I tell you!" Hannibal gasped, though not audibly, as he pictured nuzzling his face into Will's stomach, kissing and licking the flesh there, reeling with dizziness when he felt the sinewy muscle and the bit of ribs Will had sticking out due to his recent weight loss.

Will curled his toes when he shoved his fingers deep inside himself practically to the hilt. Suddenly the noise and the sounds of his roommates below him on the main floor of the house were completely drowned out, and the only sound he could hear and wanted to hear was Hannibal's voice. It was as if the rest of the world had been shut off from them, and there were the only ones on the entire planet together, all alone.

"Fuck! Fuck!" Will repeated as he fucked himself deeper and faster, feeling the warm wetness seep from his straining cock and over-flowing onto his hand.

"Hannibal!" He cried, and Hannibal groaned back in response.

"Will!" Hannibal finally envisioned himself digging forward with his teeth into Will's exposed, warm flesh. He tore straight through the muscle, blood splattering everywhere. The crimson liquid covered Hannibal's face, neck, and chest. He flicked out his long tongue, and ran it down his chin slowly, making sure to soak up as much of the blood as possible.

He looked down at Will, who had his eyes wide open and his mouth closed, though his eyes bore no expression at all. He appeared almost life-less, and his body began to grow pale and weak as the blood poured all over the counter and flowed down onto the floor beneath them, entrapping them in a sea of smell of death that hung in the air menacingly.

Hannibal reached forward with a hand, and tugged out one of Will's ribs. He pulled it out from his chest, causing it to make a slick cracking noise in the process, and raised it up before the light. It was dripping slightly with blood, and Hannibal flicked out his tongue the way one would when catching falling snowflakes, and caught the blood in his mouth. He closed his eyes and savoured each and every single drop, his tongue cherishing the taste for minutes before he sucked on the long rib, his eyes peering down at Will.

Hannibal moved the rib bone carefully in and out of his mouth, his eyes never leaving Will's. Will opened his mouth slightly, and a stream of dark red blood poured forth from his mouth, covering his lips and making it appear as if he was wearing lipstick now.

Hannibal raised his voice, feeling his throat burning as his testicles ached, begging for a much-needed release. He massaged them gently, but firmly as he sped up his pace.

He heard the creaking of Will's bed from the other end of the line, and presumed he was arching his back high into the air, his body on the edge of release.

"I want to decorate and paint my body with your blood, Will." Hannibal spoke, and that was it.

He heard Will cry out his name in a loud, sensual cry of release. He coated his hand in his warm seed, some of his release covering his stomach in the process. Will closed his eyes and tried to get his breathing calm and steady. He had never had an orgasm that intense and strong before in his life.

He felt his head pound and throb, a small headache increasing after seconds. He suddenly came to realize that he had been holding his breath majority of the time in order to contain the noises that flew out of his mouth, which lead to a small headache.

"WILL!" Hannibal's strong, masculine voice broke through to him, without warning, and Will felt his cock twitch in response as he listened to Hannibal cry out his own orgasm not long after Will's.

The world soon came back into motion. Will heard water running downstairs and in the kitchen, and knew his roommates were washing dishes and putting the food away. His stomach suddenly growled in response, almost chastising him for ignoring its own need to feed for so long.

"Shit."

"What is it?" Hannibal panted, looking down at his messy stomach and insides of his thighs that were covered with his own release.

"I need to go eat, I'm starved." Will explained gently, feeling his throat burn with every word he took.

Hannibal felt himself get semi-hard again at that confession. He had to admit, sometimes he despised his high sex-drive, but at times like this, he revered in it.

"Eat what, Will? What delicacy are you going to consume whole-heartedly?" He moaned softly.

Will closed his eyes and shook his head. "Not now, Hannibal!"

Hannibal felt his mood darken. "So you regret it, then? What we did?"

"No! I just-look, we still need to talk, about a lot of things. I know you feel the same way I do." Will explained as he pulled up his boxers, grateful he hadn't gotten them dirty for they were his only clean pair. He made a mental note to do his laundry soon before the week was out.

"Yes, you're right." Hannibal sighed and stood, making his way to the bathroom. He shrugged out of his bathrobe and let it drop onto the cold tiles of the bathroom.

"Let's meet up some time next week, ok?" Will asked, moving off his bed, his feet a little shaky and weak. Apparently the orgasm had been a lot stronger than he originally thought.

"Agreed." Hannibal began to run the water in his shower.

"What are you up to _now_?" Will asked, though he didn't wish to know for he had a strange feeling it would be his undoing.

"A second shower, thanks to you, Will." Hannibal answered truthfully.

"Don't you dare start." Will warned, though his tone was playful and gentle.

Hannibal chuckled at the back of his throat, feeling his mood lighten. "My apologies. I'll be thinking of you, Will. Your sweet little unmarred body..."

"Good bye, Hannibal." Will turned off his phone before he got more turned on and checked himself a few times over before he opened his bedroom door and made his way down to the kitchen, hoping his roommates had left some scraps for him.

He felt the gods were in his favor when he was faced with a small plate filled with food and a small glass of beer right next to it. His roommates never disappointed him.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus, someone needs to take away my computer for a few months O.o  
> Thank you to those who left reviews for me, and I updated this story with 2 chapters this week because I will probably not be able to update until a few weeks from now as I have 2 midterm exams coming up!! Hope this chapter and the previous sufficed!
> 
> Avixi


	9. He Who Saves a Single Life Saves The Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Author Note: Hi guys, I am so so so so so sorry I have not been keeping up with this fanfic. Some life events came up, such as me having to drop out of my program due to mental health pressures, and I met someone and now am happily in a relationship, and in my free time off work and school, I am trying to recover from, well, life lol.  
> Anyway, here is another chapter, though this one is a bit shorter than usual, but I hope you all enjoy reading it nonetheless!!! 
> 
> Avixi

**Chapter 8**

 

Mason Verger rubbed his black leather kid gloves together, partly trying to keep his frigid hands cold and partly trying to keep his inner animal calm and tame as he watched a few children with their mother across the street at a line-up for the movie theatre. Mason chuckled darkly as the little girl tugged on her mother’s grey dress pants impatiently while the woman tried to watch her son as she spoke to someone on her cellphone.

Her son was running around back and forth, almost as impatient as his sister while their busy mother was trying to hold a conversation. Mason groaned as he felt his cock hardening in his pants as the little boy called out to his mother.

 _“Such a sweet, tender tone…”_ He thought. He was so pleased for not wearing any underwear. Not that Mason enjoyed or did not enjoy underwear in particular, but he did not wear any on these particular occasions. It gave him easy access to his demanding erection whenever he freely chose so.

After what seemed like many hours, the woman finally got off her cellphone, and looked down at her daughter. The little girl was dressed in pink and red Hello Kitty snow pants, pink matching boots, a bright pink tuque, with a small purple bow on the side.

Mason felt his cock brushing against the zipper of his jeans, and he groaned in both pain and pleasure. He reached down and grabbed his cock through the fabric of her clothing, making sure his hand moved up and down and rubbed the sensitive skin of his cock roughly against the zipper. He wanted to make himself bleed, and then he closed his eyes, imaging rubbing his slightly red and bleeding cock all over the little girl’s clothing and then slowly onto her delicate soft skin…

“Nathan! Get back here!!” The mother’s cries for her son broke the tension, and Mason frowned darkly, reaching a gloved hand back up to his face and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

He stood no more than a few feet away from the mother and her children, sitting at a small bench against a café wall. Large statues covered in sheets of snow surrounded the bench, obscuring Mason from the view of the woman and her children.

The little boy named Nathan ran all around, seemingly getting more excited and joyous as his mother yelled at him. He ran all the way to the back of the line, giggling with his small white teeth shining brightly in the sunlight afternoon, as all over, people tried stepping out of his way and pulling their own children aside in the line.

“Nathan!”

Nathan raised his arms up in the air, one little mitten hanging halfway off his right hand and the other hand frantically throwing a little ball of snow ahead as he stuck his tongue out and tried to catch the falling snowflakes as he amused himself.

Mason raised an eyebrow as he watched the little boy dart across the sidewalk, running in small circles, spinning faster and faster. The little boy spun himself so fast; that the mitten on his right hand that was already hanging halfway off his little fingers flew off with great momentum and speed, landing all the way right next to Mason’s feet on the snowy cold ground.

“Hey!” Nathan cried, spinning coming to an abrupt halt as he noticed his uncovered right hand. He toppled over onto the snowy sidewalk, face growing red-from both exhaustion of the spinning, and his growing upset mood due to the loss of the mitten.

Mason stood from the bench slowly, and bent down to pick up the dark blue mitten. He noticed the Spiderman head on the back of the hand of the glove and snickered.

Mason’s eyes wandered back up across the street, and he looked at Nathan as he sat in the snow, crying really loudly by now. His mother was still far behind in the line, trying to pull the hand of her daughter along through the line to get to her son.

Mason slowly held up the mitten and held it to his face. He made sure he was looking right at Nathan as he did so. Then, right according to his plan, Nathan looked right up at Mason. His innocent wet teary eyes landed on the mitten and his mouth gaped open in awe and wonder.

Mason smiled like the very Devil himself, and slowly held out the mitten before him. He raised his eyebrows and shook the mitten gently, like toying with a kitten with a ball of yarn dangling, and he mouthed: “Want this?” to the child.

Nathan stood quickly, hands outstretched, snow covering his entire snowsuit, as he ran forward happily towards Mason holding his mitten.

“NATHAN! CARS!!!!!!!!!!” His poor mother screamed from the top of her lungs, as she saw a white minivan coming down the left side of the street at average speed, definitely capable of seriously injuring her child.

“Come on.” Mason called out a little louder, shaking the mitten while wearing a fake smile on his face.

Nathan laughed and ran as quickly as his chubby little legs could carry him, giggling and keeping his eyes trained on the mitten he wanted so desperately.

The minivan kept approaching, the middle-aged woman behind the wheel looking down at her lighter as she tried to light her cigarette in the vehicle, not noticing the little child stumble a bit and slow his running.  
  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“Why won’t you wear it? It does indeed suit you, Will.” Hannibal ran a gloved hand through his boyfriend’s curly mess of dark brown hair as he tried to adjust the dark brown and white patterned scarf around Will’s neck with his other hand.

Will smiled and shook Hannibal’s hand off his neck. “Hannibal, seriously. It looks like you stole this off my grandfather. I won’t be caught dead wearing this.”

Hannibal frowned, but laughed. “Cheeky, Will. Very cheeky.”

Will rolled his eyes but accepted Hannibal’s warm kiss on his stubbly cheek.

“NATHAN!”

Hannibal and Will paused in their stroll suddenly.

“It sounds like someone’s about to be murdered…” Will whispered more to himself than to Hannibal.

Hannibal sped up his pace, Will following him closely behind. Hannibal inwardly gasped as he saw a little boy just a few feet away from an oncoming minivan, the driver inside the machine completely engrossed in lighting her cigarette instead of paying attention to the road before her.

Will noticed the scene the exact same time as Hannibal, and without thinking, dashed forward with the scarf in his hands tightly.

“WILL!” Hannibal screamed, feeling his throat already burning due to how loudly he had screamed.

The sight was too much to behold. Hannibal raced after Will, his hair falling into his face and onto his forehead as he began sweating profusely. His eyes landed on Mason Verger on the same side of the street they were walking on, just a few feet down ahead of them. Mason was holding a blue mitten in his hand, and smiling at the approaching little child like a lion eying a piece of meat.

Will suddenly leapt off his two feet like an agile athlete, bounding away from their side of the street as he leapt into the street right in front of the child and the minivan.

“NATHAN!”      

“WILL! DON’T!”

The mother and Hannibal’s voice mixed in a fit of fear.

Will stretched out his arms desperately with the scarf and wrapped the long, thick fabric deftly and carefully around the midriff of the child. He yanked as quickly as he could, and he pulled the child back to the opposite side of the street where his mother was rushing towards the pair of them. As they flew through the air across the street, Will swiftly wrapped the long scarf multiple times around the boy’s little head, and then wrapped his own arms around the child as Will threw himself onto the cold sidewalk of the street, with the child resting on his chest and stomach shielded safely.

The woman screamed from behind her windshield, slamming onto the breaks and swerving dangerously-despite the clean roads-and slamming her elbows forward onto the horn. The horn blared through the chilly winter atmosphere, as screams of other people gathering on both sides of the streets chopped through the air.

The little girl covered her face in her mother’s hair, crying loudly as she held onto the back of her mother’s neck with her little hands as tightly as she could.

The woman set her daughter down, eyes red and cheeks red and tear stained as she raced over to Will and her son on the cold sidewalk.

“NATHAN! Oh my god! Nathan! Someone help! PLEASE!”

Hannibal held up his hands as he weaved his way in between cars as they approached from opposite ends of the street, honking and driver’s rolling down their windows to swear at him as he tried racing towards Will.

“Sorry! Please, excuse me! Pardon me!” Hannibal cried, leaping with his long legs over the hood of a small black car, trying to make a short-cut to Will and the child.

He was suddenly right next to the mother as she was kneeling down in front of Will. Hannibal placed his hands on Will’s forehead. He angrily yanked his gloves off as quickly as he could, throwing them somewhere next to him in the snow.

“Will!”

He desperately touched Will’s forehead and then neck, trying to feel a pulse somewhere. Suddenly, as if a scene from a horror film, Will’s closed arms unfolded themselves voluntarily, and fell on either side of his body onto the frozen ground.

The child, safely and carefully protected in his chest, poked his head out from beneath the thick scarf.

He looked at Will, and then his mother gasping and sobbing like a little lost child herself.

 

“Mommy!” He cried, getting off Will and latching himself onto his hysteric mother.

 

The poor woman could do nothing but sob and heave, as she looked down at her son and cradled him to her chest, and then looked at Will’s unmoving body, and then at Hannibal.

 

“Th-thank you! Is h-h-he ok?!” She asked Hannibal, eyes darting back to Will.

 

Behind them, a larger crowd had gathered, a few people rudely taking their cellphones out and snapping photos of the scene or making a film.

 

Hannibal’s eyes widened as he tried to feel a pulse or some other sign of life within Will, but was interrupted by whispering and the snapping and clicking of phones taking photos.

 

He suddenly glared up at everyone in front of them and behind them and roared from the bottom of his lungs.

 

“DO YOU PEOPLE HAVE ANY DECENCY WHATSOEVER?!” As soon as the sentence was out of his mouth, the crowd back off a few steps. People put their phones and camera down.

 

“Disgusting rude people.” Hannibal hissed to himself. He looked back down at Will on the sidewalk.

 

He shook him gently. “Will!”

 

Mason’s approaching footsteps were soon right beside Hannibal.

 

“Oh my goodness! What happened?” He asked, a fake concern growing in his voice, though he didn’t fool Hannibal.

 

Hannibal growled at Mason and grabbed his shirt collar the second he was on his knees in front of them. “YOU did this!”

 

“Hey! I was just watching him save this poor boy!” Mason cried, eyes growing wide with shock as he shoved against Hannibal’s chest strongly, successfully managing to disengage Hannibal from his grasp.

 

“He’s awake! I saw him move!” The little girl pointed at Will, breaking the tension between Hannibal and Mason. The crowd gasped, and a few people even cheered as they once again pulled out their phones and began taking photos.

 

Hannibal lowered his head onto Will’s chest, pressing his ear against it and listening. Everyone was silenced immediately. All eyes were on Will, searching for any sign of life.

 

Hannibal closed his eyes, sensing as Will’s bones were all intact and strong as they were before. His veins were not ruptured, and he was not bleeding internally. Hannibal closed his eyes and sniffed as casually as he could. No sign of blood anywhere outside of Will’s lithe body. His muscles were intact, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Why was he not moving, then?!

 

Hannibal waited patiently. And then, out of the cold and silence, a faint “pitter, patter.” Hannibal opened his eyes and smiled. “Will.”

 

His blood and life was flowing through his veins; he was alive and well.

 

As if on cue, Will’s eyes opened, and he took a deep breath and stirred. Immediately everyone cheered and clapped, a few people running to his side and patting him on the back, grabbing him gently, helping him up, and the mother crying harder as she hugged him tightly for minutes on end.

 

Mason raised a disgusted eyebrow. “You’re alive.”

 

Hannibal ignored the comment, as it was almost drowned out by the loud cheers, praises, and cries of the children hugging Will’s legs as they thanked him.

 

Will groaned, eyes closing in pain as he rubbed the back of his neck and head. Hannibal carefully grabbed his hands as he checked for any signs of damage.

 

“You’ll have a few lumps and bruises, Will, but nothing serious.” He grinned and hugged Will gently.

 

“How do you-” Will began to ask, but was interrupted as the little boy brushed past him and ran towards Mason.

 

He leapt up and down on his tiny feet, arms outstretched for the mitten. “Mine! Mine!” He cried happily.

 

Will sighed, wishing he was once again so young and innocent, being able to forget traumatic events and just being distracted by the joys of childhood.

 

His vision was slightly blurred, and he shook his head and felt a headache coming on. “Oooh.” He groaned, wishing he hadn’t shaken his head like that.

 

The mother thanked Will more, and then turned to head towards the elderly woman coming out of her minivan.

 

“YOU ALMOST KILLED MY SON!” She shrieked, her little daughter following closely after her.

 

Once Will’s vision had cleared, he noticed the little boy named Nathan as he stood right in front of Mason Verger, who held the mitten in front of the boy as he ruffled his hair with his other hand.

 

“Son of a bitch!” Will hissed under his breath.

 

Hannibal looked over at Mason and nodded. “Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear.”

 

“I knew he had something to do with this shit.” Will spoke dangerously, as he watched Mason finally hand over the mitten to the little boy.

 

The boy giggled and then laughed, turning to go towards his mother. But before he left, he stumbled a bit on his little legs, and he brushed his little backside against the front of Mason’s pants.

 

Then, to Will’s pure horror and disgust, Mason Verger’s mouth fell open in a “O”, and he sucked in a large breathe as he shook and quivered. Will looked at the small wet stain growing on Mason’s pants on his crotch. He was livid with anger by that point.

 

Mason gasped and covered his mouth with a gloved hand as he felt his orgasm shaking him. He was blinded with pleasure, as he took off his glasses with a shaking hand and brushing some sweat off his forehead with the back of his glove. He breathed heavily through his nose, trying to scoop up the scent of the innocent child.

 

Once he had composed himself, he placed his glasses back onto his face. It had only been a second, and Mason’s eyes barely had time to adjust before he saw Will’s dark, angry face right before his eyes.

 

“Yay Will. What a Saint, you are. I liked the part where you-” He was interrupted and cut short when Will grabbed his coat collar and dragged him with all his strength doubled up. They grazed past the crowd and approaching ambulance, all the way down the street and around the corner. They were behind a small diner and Mason barely had time to breathe before he was thrown violently against the front of a frozen metal green dumpster behind the diner.

 

All the breath was knocked out of his body as he felt his back pierced by the cold and harsh metal, but he barely had time to recover from the shock when he felt Will’s strong fist collide with his exposed stomach.

 

Will didn’t punch once, or twice. He punched Mason in the gut over twenty times. Mason closed his eyes, not even bothering to scream as he felt Will slam his fists into his body again and again.

 

“Will! Stop it!” Hannibal’s calmer voice broke through Will’s screams of hatred and anger, and Hannibal soon caught up to the pair of them and wrapped his arms around Will’s shoulders, managing to pull Will back a little bit.

 

Hannibal was unable to anticipate Will’s force and tripled strength due to his anger and hatred for Mason Verger, and he was knocked back a few feet as Will shrugged his shoulders and moved Hannibal’s hands off, and resumed punching.

 

Mason was trying to get away, and he balanced himself by resting one hand on the front of the dumpster, but he had unknowingly lowered his head, his face right before Will’s fists, exposed and unprotected.

 

Will took the opportunity gladly, and rammed his fists against Mason’s face, knocking the glasses off of them and onto the snow a few feet away from the dumpster.

 

“Will! NO!” Hannibal cried, and once again tried to make a dive for Will to stop him before he lost himself in his red rage.

 

Will didn’t budge his feet from in front of Mason, and he continued to punch even harder and faster. His fist collided with Mason’s nose, and a solid CRACK! echoed through the empty alley. Blood poured all over Will’s coat, but that only seemed to fuel on Will’s blows.

 

He smashed his fists all over Mason’s face, wanting to decorate his entire face in his own blood. It was going to be a sensational work of art, and Mason deserved it no more, no less. He had had it coming since the day Will had met him.

 

He swung his fists back and forth quickly, not wanting to waste a single second of beatings. He wanted to make sure Mason felt one before he had another more painful one coming. He wanted to sink his fists into the bone of Mason’s cheeks, breaking right past them and through them, feeling the bones shatter into a billion little pieces as his face caved in and resembled a mashed potato.

 

Hannibal fought as hard as he could, trying to grab the back of Will’s elbows to slow down his blows. He saw a pool of blood gathering in the snow beneath them, the heat of it melting the snow and a few bits of ice, the liquid turning a mixed color of red and pink. The coppery smell of blood was too strong in the air, and it made Hannibal’s stomach growl slightly.

 

He wanted Mason dead as much as Will did, but this was not the time and the place. “Will! Enough!” He cried, gritting his teeth together as he continued the struggle.

 

“FUCKING DIE!” Will roared, and he smashed his hands into Mason’s mouth, successfully managing to bust both his lips. Fresh blood poured all over Will’s hands, and Hannibal looked in surprise to see the gloves on Will’s hands wearing down, the fabric actually torn. He was sure it was due to the violent, fatal beating Will was giving Mason; not the previous incident of saving the little boy.

 

Will continued bashing his knuckles against Mason’s mouth, feeling his teeth against the bones in his own hands. Will’s eyes rolled back up into their sockets, and he felt himself reeling with both excitement and horror as he literally felt he was breaking apart this rotten, evil human being. He wouldn't be able to hurt anymore if this vile thing was gone. He wouldn't be able to spread his evil and harm anymore to another child or human being. He had to kill him.

 _“Yes! He deserves this a million times over!”_ Will’s thoughts supplied deliciously, and he continued smashing Mason’s teeth in.

They were caked in blood, and it literally began to overflow out of Mason’s mouth and onto his clothing and the snow on the ground beneath them.

Will felt his chest aching, and he soon realized he had forgotten to even breathe. He wanted not to waste a second of the beating, so much that he had put his own breathing on hold if it promised that Mason’s would cease forever.

He took a deep breath in through his nose, and his head reeled at the stench of blood in the air. That was what fueled him on even more. He was so close to ending it all, ridding the world of Mason motherfucking Verger and all the evil he was.

“Hahahahahaha!” The laughter was so soft and quiet, that Will had nearly missed it at first, but then it grew after every second, louder and longer.

Will opened his bloodshot eyes and peered down before him. Mason was LAUGHING. Surely, there it was, he was laughing.

Will slowed down his punches, but didn’t cease them entirely. He was hoping that through his anger, he had been blinded and imaging Mason laughing and sharing in his joy of breaking him. But he hadn’t.

Mason’s chest shook, and he lowered his head. Will landed one last blow on the top of Mason’s messy head before Hannibal’s firm hands grabbed his, and held them tightly. He stopped for a brief moment.

Mason dropped to his knees, his hands resting on the cold snow, but that didn’t stop his movements. Will thought for a moment he had begun to cry, due to his chest heaving in and out, and his back shaking violently. Yes, he had most definitely been crying….?

No he hadn’t.               

Mason raised his head, and Will inwardly gasped at the sight before him. Mason’s lips were swollen and resembled a bashed watermelon. They didn’t even look like lips; but pieces of wet, damaged watermelon scattered and broken all across the street. He had a few teeth chipped, and they were far from white. As he threw back his head and laughed, Will noticed his mouth was drenched in blood, and it began pouring down and over his lips, which seemed to only swell more by the minute, and grew heavy with their swollen weight, and hung open on their own.

Mason’s eyes were absolutely focused and clear, which scared Will the most. He didn’t look in pain at all. Rather, he looked like he had been enjoying every last second of the brutal beating.

Will was almost sure he was turned on from it all, but he was too frightened to look down and see the erection for himself.

“Will!” Hannibal breathed into his ear. Will calmed down immediately once he heard Hannibal’s voice break through his heavy panting and breathing. He stopped hearing his own heart pounding in his chest, and he took another deep breathe.

His ears had even stopped ringing, and he continued to gaze down at Mason.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Mason laughed as loudly as he could, like a complete psychotic fucknut.

Will glared at him and kicked some snow over at him as a last futile attempt at breaking his character. “You liked it, you sick motherfucking piece of shit! YOU LIKED IT! YOU LIKED IT! YOU ENJOYED IT ALL!” He felt his voice rising along with his anger once more, and before he could make another dive forward at Mason, Hannibal pinned him back against a cold brick wall as far away from the giggling Mason as possible.

Hannibal stood his ground right in front of Will, as if he were a large pillar he wasn’t able to go through to get to Mason. Hannibal grabbed Will’s face in his hand, cupping his cheeks tightly.

“YOU LIKED IT!” Will continued to scream at Mason, his head dodging to the left and the right, trying to look at Mason over Hannibal’s shoulders.

 

“WILL!” He was suddenly brought back down to Earth once he looked at Hannibal, finally.

 

Hannibal’s eyes were cold, glassy, and unfeeling. Though Mason continued to cackle loudly, Will stopped and put all his focus onto Hannibal.

 

“We have to leave, now.” Hannibal spoke calmly as he could, still holding Will’s face, gently, but firmly in his cold hands.

 

Will gave Hannibal a long, silent stare before he nodded once. He pushed himself off the wall and looked at the pool of blood gathering more around the barely recognizable Mason Verger. What had once been a well-dressed heir now resembled a damaged, shattered insane man.

 

Mason’s laughter never ceased as he stood up, grabbing the top of the lid of the dirty dumpster. “Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHA!!!!”

 

Will kept his eyes on Mason’s shaking form as Hannibal guided him to the exit of the diner. But before they left, Will saw Mason turn on non-shaking feet, his broken glasses in his hands. He shook the snow off of them, and spat out bloodied spit onto them, rubbing them in a non-caring, casual manner, on his dirtied coat before placing them back onto the bridge of his broken, bruised nose.

 

As Will looked on, Mason ran his blood-covered hand across his bashed, bruised lips, scooping up a ton of blood before he brought the hand to his tongue, which snaked out forward and tasted the blood slowly like a vampire.

 

He pouted a bit as soon as he tasted the blood, then barked out a chipper laugh.

 

“I’m going to feed you to my pigs!” He pointed at Will, and then threw his head back and laughed even harder and louder, the laughter staying with Will and Hannibal all the way until they had reached Hannibal’s apartment.

 

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	10. It All Falls and Fades

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so, I know I have not updated in a while, and for that I DO apologize guys! Things just have been super crazy because I have been in a serious relationship for the last 9 months, and still going strong, and trying to get back into school too! :O  
> But I'd never forget you guys! And yes, I have heard the sad news of NBC cancelling Hannibal, but what did you expect? it IS NBC after all (NBC= Nothing But Cancellations, lol).  
> Fear not, though, I don't think this is even close to the end of this show! ^_^
> 
> With that said, enjoy this chapter.

 

**Chapter 10**

 

**Staring into Hannibal’s eyes always gave Will a sense of comfort and solace in the past; he often could get lost in those mysterious orbs forever, but today, they held the opposite effect for him. He leaned back, and watched as his dewy breath escaped his lungs as he exhaled, sweeping the dull air of the room they were in and floated above his head and seemed to disappear into nothingness.**

**It was a cold day after classes had ended, and Will normally would head home to review his lecture material for the day, when Hannibal had called to check whether he was alright after the previous physical lashing he had bestowed upon Mason Verger the other day in the snow.**

**They were sitting a few feet away from each other in a half lift student study room. Normally the room was packed during the earlier hours, but today, despite it only approaching eight-o’clock-PM, not a single soul was in the room, hunched over a desk and a stack of papers and books. It was refreshing, yet oddly disturbing. To the far right side of the room was a little book shelf that was only a few inches taller than Hannibal, and it provided plenty of Law journals and newspaper clippings. Behind Hannibal was a silver ladder that leaned casually against a wall with a bucket of moldy water resting below it. Maintenance had been going on in the room due to a mountain of snow piling onto the roof outside and breaking through the delicate-yet-old-ceilings.**

**Hannibal and Will sat in the center of the room on identical dark brown sofas; Hannibal casually crossing his long, lean legs over each other and staring intently at Will with his hands in his lap neatly, and Will leaning back with a hand draped over his hot, sweaty forehead-despite the dropping temperature outside.**

**“Will?” Hannibal questioned, head titled curiously as he observed every little move the younger boy made.**

**“Just give me a second to clear my head, please.” A million thoughts were running through Will’s head-and they all had to do with the putrid Mason Verger.**

**“Your thoughts are muddled with nothing but that louse of a human being.” Hannibal stated almost jealously as his eyes squinted seriously at Will.**

**Will rolled his eyes and set his hand down immediately. “Yes, they are, but not in the way YOU think.”**

**Hannibal cocked an eyebrow inquisitively. “Do entertain me on that, Will.” Will glared at Hannibal, but did not speak up.**

**They had already been over this a thousand times practically, and every time they had, Hannibal only told Will to cease giving Mason Verger his mental energy and power, and assured him that the rude would always receive their just “desserts”.**

**“I already told you.” Will’s voice sneered over at Hannibal, yet his eyes remained trained on the white and stain-covered ceiling above them.**

**Hannibal sighed this time, looking ahead at Will, eyes a bit colder now. “This is childish, Will. Why must we play such games?”**

**Will chuckled, “Wouldn’t you say it’s Mason Verger who’s playing games, Hannibal?”**

**Hannibal nodded blankly, but kept his stare on Will. “Indeed it is.”**

**“I wish I just-!” Will sighed and finally broke his gaze from the ceiling and looked at Hannibal, and then past his head at the wall behind him that supported the old ladder strongly.**

**Hannibal smirked, reading Will’s thoughts almost instantaneously. “You wish you killed him that very day, don’t you?”**

**Will’s eyes didn’t move for the longest time, but they finally inched away from the wall, and down over to Hannibal’s eyes. There was a shred of that comfort and solace, but it seemed to have disappeared as soon as Will made eye contact with their depths.**

**“Yes. I do. Does that make me every bit a monster like him?”**

**Hannibal didn’t respond immediately, but instead studied his black shoes for a while, before getting up slowly from the sofa seat, hands tucked neatly into his pockets, while he looked down almost mockingly at Will. He knew how to use his height to his advantage many times, but this was certainly not the most opportune time to do so-at least from Will’s perspective.**

**“I wouldn’t place the moniker of ‘monster’ upon your head, Will; I rather think a number of different ornaments would lightly decorate your character far more appropriately.”**  
  
They would be getting nowhere at this point. Hannibal was more in the mood to toy with Will than actually help Will, and this was not the first time this had occurred in their odd relationship. Will knew he had to shut it down immediately before Hannibal weaved his way inside Will's head.  


**“I’ve been hearing things, you know.” Will interrupted, leaping onto another topic; he was in no mood to be psycho-analyzed today.**

**Hannibal moved a few steps forward, eyes deadly trained on Will as if he were stalking him for a delicious and fulfilling meal. “Noises in the walls, Will?”**

**Will resisted the urge to shrug. He had mentioned having a strong headache once to Hannibal last week, and when he had returned home to rest, he could have sworn he heard scuttling and scratching noises in the walls of his room. When he had questioned his house-mates as to whether or not they had experienced hearing the same sounds, all the boys rejected it and stated it was all in Will's head. When he had brought up the subject with Hannibal, he had been shocked that the older boy found the idea not alarming. This was precisely why Will was shocked Hannibal even remembered this to begin with when he had turned his back on the topic and closed it when he initially brought it up.**

**Will nodded, “It doesn’t always happen, but it has been occurring too often for it to just be stress-related or me merely imagining things.”**

**Hannibal moved closer to Will, his clothing and his form not making a single sound-it was almost as he were hovering a few inches above the floor in a ghostly manner. Will wondered if he could run his hand through him and make him disappear into a vapour-like substance. It seemed as if all his thoughts were amounting to just that.**

**“Tell me, Will...” Hannibal’s voice was seductive, playful, teasing, and many other things Will could name at that moment. He watched as Hannibal stepped away from his sofa seat, which was somehow in a darker spot than he could initially remember when they had walked into the room to talk. Hannibal’s luminous eyes and figure seemed to glow in front of Will as he walked closer and closer to Will’s seated body. The light from the side of the room that Will was in seemed to bathe in Hannibal’s form very appropriately-like he were some sort of angel that Will so desperately needed…no, an angel was something Hannibal certainly was not.**

**Will shook his head from his thoughts; Hannibal stood a few inches away from Will, his waist directly in front of Will’s nose.**

**“What have your eyes and ears been seeking out, Will?” Hannibal’s voice seemed to have limbs of their own, caving down on the top of Will’s head and smothering him further down in his seat by the second. It was all very degrading-yet sexually alluring to Will.**

**“It’s l-like, you know, j-j-just, scuttling and scurrying in the w-walls. Like animals…” Will hissed as he took off his glasses and rubbed his strained, swollen eyes. He had gotten no sleep the night before this, and it was beginning to take its toll on him.**

**“Animals?” Hannibal cooed above Will, legs slightly spread and his hips almost resting upon Will’s nose.**

**Will’s hands began to shake violently, and he nearly dropped his glasses. Every bit of muscle movement and coordination seemed to be going out the window, and it seemed like hours before he guided his hand to rest his glasses back upon the bridge of his nose, but he managed it nonetheless and he pushed them up with a shaking, weak finger.**

**“Yes.” He began to shake all over; as if he had a violent, high-fever. The room was suddenly cold and hot at the same time, and he tried shifting in his seat to find a more comfortable position, yet none came to him, so he stood abruptly.**

**Hannibal’s smirking gaze met Will’s pained one. “What’s the matter, dear Will? Not feeling yourself like yourself, are you?” His eyes searched Will up and down, as if scanning him with the piercing retinas, soaking in some kind of hidden knowledge that he would likely never share with Will, and it did nothing but make Will feel uncomfortable. The room suddenly seemed smaller, and he felt a growing sense of claustrophobia rising within him. Will wondered whether he should tell Hannibal to back up a bit, but he was deeply enjoying the closeness; whatever the motive Hannibal had behind them being irrelevant.  
**

**Hannibal’s voice dripped like poisonous honey to Will, and he closed his eyes behind his lenses and leaned his head forward to rest on Hannibal’s chest. The taller boy didn’t move a single muscle, but allowed Will to rest his weary head on him momentarily before moving back gently.**

**Will was about to voice his discontent when Hannibal leaned forward closer and whispered in his ear, his tongue flicking out like a serpent’s and dipping inside the dark cavern of Will’s ear to taste him. “Will…your body is cold, yet your head and heart are deeply ignited with fiery heat…” Hannibal’s tongue inched inside Will’s ear after this statement, and Will gasped suddenly, pushing his hands onto Hannibal’s chest and gaining some distance between both their bodies.**

**How had Hannibal come so close to him in a few mere seconds?**

**“Don’t! Don’t touch me…” Will cried, turning away from Hannibal and walking around him behind the sofas and going toward the ladder.**

**Hannibal didn’t say a word, but the expression on his face was playful and amused. He shoved his hands in the grey pants pockets of his expensive grey and white suit, and he walked closer to Will, causing the younger boy to exhale and lean his back directly onto the ladder, one of his hands reaching up as if asking for help from the higher heavens.**

**The entire movement was almost a twisted version of a dance, or a courtship between the two young men.**

**Will watched his shaking breath escape from his lips and go towards Hannibal’s own taught mouth. Hannibal opened his mouth quickly, and inhaled as soon as Will’s breath had reached his lips. He closed his eyes and smiled to himself, as if he had gained all the energy and health Will had lost in his escaped, desperate breath.**

**Hannibal opened his dark eyes, and they seemed to hold a devious glow within them as he leaned his body to rest almost directly on top of Will’s backed up on against the ladder.**

**“What sweet, seductive thoughts are running through your mind now, Will? Hmm?” He asked as he watched Will’s eyeballs darting behind his closed eyelids as his dark eyebrows were clenched in what appeared to be a mixture of pleasure and pain. The sight delighted Hannibal to no extent, and his bared his teeth in a grin. He seemed to salivate at the sight of Will’s vulnerable state, but he careful not to lunge his weight onto Will and cause the ladder to fall down. Patience was key in this dominance, and Hannibal wanted to draw Will out of his shirking shell and have him desperately wanting him as much as he wanted Will. All in good time.**

**“I-”**

**“Do you imaging scenarios between us? Exchanges? Me fucking you?” Hannibal’s tongue seemed to literally fuck the word “you”, and it made Will’s cock stand out immediately to attention.**

**He grasped the higher ladder rung tightly, his hand and fingers going white from the intensity of his grip as sweat beads formed on his heating forehead. He almost cried out in surprise when he felt Hannibal’s burning hot lips connect with his sweaty forehead, pausing and resting there for the longest time in a soothing kiss.**

**“Forget Mason, Will…forget it…you’re mine, and with me here.” Hannibal whispered against Will’s forehead, and the words seemed strong and passionate enough to burn and seep through the bone and thick marrow of Will’s skull and sink into his brain. He believed it, and relished in the fact that he was Hannibal’s alone.**

**It took every effort in Will’s weak and shaking body to move his back away and off the ladder, and stand closer to Hannibal’s firm, staunch one. When he did, he took a deep breath in, and slowly opened his eyes. The sight that met Will’s eyes when he had opened them made him fall back against the ladder roughly as a startled “OH!” escaped his strained lips and wheezed forth.**

**Replacing Hannibal’s welcoming form, there stood a darker version of Hannibal himself. The figure was entirely black, and the lights of the room glowed and shined off him and hit Will’s retinas lip a cold slap to the face. The figure had Hannibal’s height, build, and even facial features; but the figure had dark, long thick horns jutting out from its skull and expanded on either side of its head. Its bulbous head peered down at Will, the eyes barely readable and visible due to the poor light in the room.**

**Then, to Will’s sheer horror, the horns began to grow. They grew and expanded slowly, then gained momentum and speed. They jutted forth and resembled black, dead branches as they wound their way above Will’s head onto the ladder, curling around them evilly, as dark vines sprung forth from their branches.**

**Will moaned in fear and cowered down onto his feet, trying to evade the monstrous demonic dark Horned-Hannibal before him. The figure itself did not move, but seemed to howl as its branches howled back in a deep, slow-down monotonous drone that filled every inch of the room in seconds that clocked onto hours. The vile branches oozed forth as they grew, and impaled the books and newspapers on the shelves above Will and impaled into the white bricks of the walls with no trouble at all. Shredded bits of paper flew down around Will, littering the room sickly, and it made Will queasier and sick as he thought of the same things those demonic branches and horns could do to his flesh and blood. He imagined himself fall backward and pinned against the wall as the growing horns sunk through his body and right outside of it into the wall, hoisting his bleeding body above in the room for all to see, and never letting him down as he rotted away to nothing and bled out.**

**He shook his head again, this time more fiercely, and shook back and forth involuntarily. “It’s all in my head! It’s all in my head!” He clenched his eyes and covered his ears with both hands as the Horned-Hannibal creature finally directed its attention onto him, looking down ferociously at him.**

**As if on command, his right horned branch whisked away from the ladder, and moved down like a slithering snake right in front of Will’s bulging eyes. Will suddenly had no control over his bones and muscles, and could only stare in sheer shock and horror as the branch thinned out, all the vines withering and drying out, turning into dust and falling down before him. When they hit the floor of the dark room, they disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, and were never to be seen again.**

**The left horn began to crack, and this time, as it did, the crying and moaning seemed to emanate forth from the horn/branch itself, and it finally shattered into a hundred pieces above Will. It was as if the branch/horn was made out of glass, and the haunting moaning and shattering of the glass were mixed together in a disturbing melody. The shattering and piercing of the glass into the floor of the room literally moved Will’s body to fall forward as he tried to avoid getting stabbed by the glass. He watched as he covered his head while resting on his knees as the black glass hit the floor in every direction all around him, but surprisingly never hit him once or even got too close to him to endanger him.**

**Will, still holding his head in his hands, looked up at the dark, monster Horned-Hannibal, and it looked directly down at him, the left horn missing now. But it still frightened Will immensely regardless of whether or not it had a million horns.**

 

**The right horn/branch was still waving in front of Will, as if it were a flag of surrendering. However, Will knew better. He watched- his eyes as wide and large as saucers as the branched moved ahead into his face. Will backed up, gasping and trying to cover his face desperately, but a part of him wanted to watch and never tear his eyes off the sickly branch as it danced like a cobra in front of him.**

**He leaned his back tightly against the wall underneath the ladder, and watched in amazement and horror as the branch weaved its way in between the ladder rings. It stopped right in front of Will’s nose, and it now was as thin as his pinky finger.**

**Will felt his eyes strain as beads of sweat ran down his nose and fell onto the floor. He had never been so entranced and scared at the same time in his entire life as he was now. He thought that any second now, the black snake-like branch would strike and kill him.**

**To his amazement, the branch end began to shake, along with the floor beneath Will. Will silently watched as a small green root began to spring forth from the branch end. It grew up quickly, a small bud forming forth from it. Within seconds, a small, delicate round white flower had grown up from the branch end and presented itself before Will. Will breathed out a sigh of relief when the flower petals opened up widely, almost as if they were smiling at Will and welcome his sight.**

**The Horned-Hannibal creature moved a step forward silently, and the little flower at the end of its left horn branch moved to rest a single petal on Will’s right cheek, as if it were trying to soothe him and caress his face-almost in a caring manner.**

**Will swayed from side-to-side on the floor, eyelids drooping out of his control. He didn’t remember much from that point forward, but he clearly remembered seeing Hannibal’s regular, human form once, peering down at him with a wicked smile plastered onto his thin face before he fainted onto the cold floor of the room.**

**It was all oddly comforting as he felt the single left branch still present in the room with him, covering his drooping body in a mock embrace, the flower resting in the palm of Will’s open-out-stretched pale hand-the white petals still open.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really meant to be a teaser for how messed-up Hannibal and Will's relationship is (because I DO seriously believe that if these two characters were ever to get together, it would NEVER be a healthy relationship anyway).  
> But I promise things won't always be this dark in this Fanfic!!!!!!!
> 
> Oh yeah....Ravenstag because he scares the shit out of me :/ But not as much as the Fleshy Meatstag thing we saw in Season 3 :S


	11. Voices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will's really starting to lose it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update for yous! I hope you all enjoy! :) ^_^  
> And to all my Canadian friends, HAPPY CANADA DAY TOMORROW!!!!!  
> Avixi

 

Chapter 11

 

“Don Giovanni! A cenar teco m’invitasti e son venuto!”  
  
“Non l’avrei giammai creduto; ma farò quel che potrò.

Leporello, un altra cena fa che subito si porti!”

“Will Graham, I don’t and never will understand how you manage to study with such a musical racket like that!” Miriam Lass shook her freshly-out-of-the-shower-wet hair as she peered at Will inquisitively over the webcam connected to Will’s during their Friday night midterm exam review study session. The pair had agreed to take it easy for the night when they heard the weather forecast predict an early heavy snow-fall that would take place all weekend long. The study session had taken place over a Google Hangout and had been going on since four PM up until the late hour of eight-thirty, but Will’s taste of music-although originally welcomed by Miriam-seemed to be taking its toll on her as the hours went by.

“This is one of Hannibal’s most preferred pieces, Miriam!” Will gasped, moving his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose as he gazed through his thick Criminology textbook right in front of him near the keyboard of his laptop.

“Hey! Stop reading on before me! We have to stay on the same page!” Miriam growled as she frowned as Will read on ahead of her in the textbook.

Will fought back the urge to roll his eyes. “I was just checking how many more pages we have to go over, relax.” He dog-eared a page and looked back up at Miriam as quickly as he could. He felt his eyes burning a bit-probably an effect of staying on the computer for so long without a break. He secretly blamed Miriam for that one, for she studied like a titan at times.

“DING!”

Will gazed away from Miriam’s angry eyes, and looked to the bottom right hand of his screen.

One New Message in Inbox.

Will clicked onto the (1) icon sitting next to his Inbox tab, and a message from Charlie appeared. Will had given his Gmail to all his roommates just as a precaution for future emergencies. All boys had asked him to add them on Facebook and Skype, but out of all of his roommates, Will only corresponded often with Max and only Max had been added to all his private social media profiles. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the others; Will just felt uncomfortable adding too many people onto his private profiles if he didn’t speak with them in person much.

Regardless, he opened the message and it was a single sentenced question: _Have you and Hannibal fucked to this song yet? LOL!_

This time Will did roll his eyes and he turned down his music a little bit. He knew he was pulling a pretty bad move by turning his music on blast without his headphones, even if he was just in the comforts of his own room. All his roommates were indoors, studying for exams, gaming, eating like pigs, and mostly hanging out due to the cold weather outside. He deleted the rude message but couldn’t keep a blush off his face as he did think about himself and Hannibal making love to loud operatic music. 

“Finally you turn that down! Seems like you DO have a conscience after all!” Miriam said sarcastically, flipping through her notebook as she shook her head in displeasure.

“It’s all relative.” Will sighed and checked his cellphone for any missed texts or calls from Hannibal. It was safe to say that due to Hannibal’s increasing hours at the Hospital, they weren’t able to spend as much time together, even to talk. Will had never told Hannibal what he had witnessed when they were in the study room barely a few weeks ago, and Hannibal had to pry a lot of it out of him as the week wore on, but they agreed that it was merely stress and fear of being away from home that had finally broken Will down, as well as the never-ending torments from Mason Verger.

Will was uncertain of how he felt towards that answer when Hannibal had first brought it up on his own; it seemed as if Hannibal was in a rush and had come to that conclusion seemingly out of nowhere, and Will had hoped they would get to the bottom of the matter soon, but exams were upon them both, and all he could afford to do was wait.

“What’s wrong with you, now, Will?” Miriam ground out through clenched teeth. She had been staring at Will for some time apparently and looked nothing short of fed up.

“Hmm?” Will asked, looking up at her and wincing as he noted her furrowed eyebrows.

“I’ve been trying to get your bloody attention for the last five min-oh you know what? Never mind!” She threw her hands up in frustration and closed her textbook and notebook.

Will cocked an eyebrow, “What are you doing, Miriam?”

“I think we should call it a night, Will. Neither of us seem serious about this study session anymore, and frankly, I’m tried as all hell.” She was perfectly right about that.

Will gazed at the clock on the bottom right hand of his laptop screen. It was already ten to nine? He shook his head. He didn’t want to discuss this with anyone in particular, but lately to him, it felt as if time was running by too quickly. He couldn’t put his finger on it entirely, but Will was almost certain he was losing his grip on time; as if he couldn’t keep track of it at all anymore. Minutes and hours all seemed to mold and melt into one oblivious blur, and he almost had to put up a fight and an effort to tell time. Maybe he really was stressed; more than he liked to think.

He nodded and closing his books too. “You’re right, Miriam. Thanks anyway though. I promise we’ll go over more of this tomorrow.”

She nodded back flipped her wet hair over her shoulder, her bedroom growing more and more dark in the glow of the laptop screen in front of her. “Good idea. Goodnight Will!”

 

He smiled warmly, despite feeling a small headache coming on. “Goodnight, Miriam.”

They both signed out of their Google accounts quickly. Will however not close or shut off his laptop. He simply sat still in his chair, looking blankly at his background screen which was a picture of Hannibal, himself, and his dogs. He suddenly had a very home-sick feeling as he wondered how his little dog family was doing back at home without him.

 _“Shit, I miss everyone so much.”_ He finally closed his eyes and rubbed his aching forehead. He really needed to head to bed.

_“Eternally damned.”_

Will’s eyes snapped open immediately. He lowered his hand away from his forehead.

“Hello?” Will turned in his chair away from his laptop, and looked all around his room. He could have sworn he heard a soft, feminine-like voice hissing at him seconds ago, but only the silence within his own room greeted and comforted him. He heard soft snow hitting his window and he felt a little but more calm, but still alert.

 

“Hello?” He called again, not getting up from his seat. He looked over at his neatly-made bed, his bookshelves, his radio next to his bed on a small night-table, his open closet with clothes messily hanging about and on the floor, and his knapsack hanging on the hooks behind his door right in front of his computer desk and chair. No one was in sight.

“I’m losing my mind!” Will cried to himself, shaking a bit as he heard the wind outside his window howling violently as if crying back in return to his statement.

_“A Grim Treat.”_

“Who’s there?!” This time Will had heard the words one-by-one as clear as day. “A Grim Treat”. What had that meant and who had spoken it? It was the same feminine voice he had heard the first time, but this time it had made no sense at all-not that he enjoyed random demonic female voices telling him he was eternally damned, but at least they sounded reasonable and intelligent. 

Will stood up abruptly from his chair, and looked at his closed and locked door with eyes burning from strain. _“I swear to god, I’m not in the mood for this crap.”_ Will sometimes had been teased by a few of his roommates, especially Charlie now that he was dateless and home all the time. He was not in the mood for Charlie’s games, but if he had to, he’d definitely need to knock some sense into the other boy.

 _“Why is he pulling this shit right NOW when I am not feeling well at all?”_ Will moved closer to his door, training his ears as much as he could on the other side of the door and the hallway outside, trying to detect any hint of another presence right outside the door.

 _“Mirage Tart!”_ This was getting ridiculous.

Will sped up his footsteps, but he was grateful for his socks padding along his carpeted floor gently, swallowing up any sound.

The voice hissed on, seemingly oblivious to Will’s approaching footsteps. _“Tag Air Term.”_ The voice grew louder and softer at the same time, hissing from the other side of the wooden door.

 _“Air term? Really, Charlie? Might want to lay off the Tom Clancy for a while.”_ Will rolled his strained eyes, trying to figure out what kind of drugs Charlie had taken prior to the eruption of this nonsense. He knew Charlie had experimented with many things in the past, but this was beyond his normal limit, and Will was more curious why Charlie was picking on him NOW, when they had no past issues with one another, and none recently. 

 

 _“Arm At Tiger.”_ Will placed his cold hand on his doorknob after lifting the little lock above the door and sliding it back. If this indeed was Charlie, Will wanted to know how he was managing these entire crazy sentences in such a scary female voice. He yanked open the door violently, sticking his entire body out into the hall at once.

“Charlie!” He screamed as his fists were raised high up as if he wanted to strike someone. Will froze immediately; there was no one in the hallway before him. Will’s room was right in front of Philip’s on the second floor of the house, and Max’s was just down the hall to the left. Philip’s door was closed, and no lights were coming from underneath the door frame. Will ventured forth into the dimly light hallway regardless, and he knocked lightly on Philip’s door.

“Phil? You in there?” He asked in a soft voice, not wanting to wake Max in case he was asleep.

 _“Rat At Grime!”_ The feminine voice was his only response as it wheezed out of nowhere.

Will gasped and leapt back away from Philip’s door, as if he had been burned simply from touching the door. Was it Philip who was behind these pranks? Will pondered the question over in his mind, be refused the idea to knock again on Philip’s door as he suddenly remembered that Philip was in the basement working out on the bench-press.

Will suddenly felt as if the hallway had grown tighter, and he felt more claustrophobic than he ever had in his entire life. He pulled at his shirt collar, eyes clenched tightly as he struggled to breathe. It was almost as if an invisible hand had been wrapped around his throat now.

“I need air!” He cried out to himself and bolted as fast as he could for the bathroom which was a few feet away from Philip’s door. He ran inside as quickly and turned on the lights. He ran some cold water in the sink and took off his glasses as he hurriedly splashed the water over his heated face. He rubbed furiously, trying to erase whatever was bothering him, even though it was nothing physical.

Will looked back up at his own reflection in the mirror as he grabbed a small blue towel off the handrail beside the sink and rubbed the remaining water droplets off his face. He looked perfectly fine; skin not flushed in the slightest, and eyes perfectly white and clear. His skin felt cooler now, but he still felt the sensation of being choked… He set the towel back down on the rack and let out a strained laugh.

“Fuck me…” He whispered to himself, trying to shake it all off.

Suddenly he heard feet shifting just a few feet away from him to his right. He whipped his head in the same direction, and looked at the closed grey shower curtains on the bathtub. He remained as quiet as he could, trying to calm his nerves as he listened for more noises. He placed his glasses back onto his nose with a slightly shaking hand as he kept his eyes glued to the shower curtains, looking for any signs of movement from behind them. He kept his breathing as low and quiet as he could, and it seemed as if he had imagined the whole thing when minutes went by and nothing happened.

Will sighed and he mentally scolded himself for being so scared and paranoid. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but he was glad the cold water on his face had shaken some sense into him. He turned to turn off the bathroom lights and head back to his room when he heard soft breathing within the bathroom, and it wasn’t his own.

He froze and turned his shaking body as slowly as he could in the direction of the shower curtains. He focused his gaze as hard as he could at the shower and the curtains, and he covered his mouth with a hand, afraid of making any panicked noises as he took one step towards the shower.

Will inched closer and closer, until the tip of his nose was right against the shower curtain. He stopped and slowly lowered his hand away from his mouth as he continued to hear the soft breathing from the other side of the curtains.

He sighed louder this time, and closed his eyes as he tried to contain his annoyance.

“Brian, get the hell out of there!” He screamed, but not too loudly as he stood before the shower curtains.

A hand pulled back the curtains quickly, and Will stood face-to-face with Brian Zeller.

“How did you know it was me?” Brian asked, looking grumpy as he scratched his light beard and stepped out of the shower tub.

“GO!” Will cried, pointing out the bathroom into the hallway.

“Gone.” Brian sped past him and opened Max’s door and dashed inside, shutting the door tightly behind him in seconds.

Will ground his teeth, lips set tightly in a thin line as he turned off the bathroom light and slammed the bathroom door shut. He still knew that the voices he was hearing were not caused by Brian, for they still echoed in his ears as he walked out in the hall and stood at the edge of the top step. The voices turned to light giggles as Will looked down at his sock-covered feet.

 _“Regatta Rim!”_ They sang as Will looked down at the last step at the bottom of the staircase.

 _“It’s just one jump…probably would silence them all...”_ Will suddenly began to feel dizzy, trying to maintain his calm composure as he stood, slightly swaying from side-to-side at the top of the staircase. He had never felt more ill in his life, and he certain that the voices were responsible. They were definitely growing louder and stronger, and Will reached out strongly with both hands and gripped the railing of the staircase tightly before he felt the need to collapse. His knees seemed so wobbly and weak suddenly, and he felt as if all his bones were turning to rubbery mush as he felt he was slowly losing control of his entire body. Someone needed to stop him before he fainted!

Will’s mouth formed an O-shape as he felt cold hands creeping up and down the length of his back, and it was almost as if the hands were pressing down against his back, ready to push him roughly from the top of the steps and down below…

“Hel-” He was about to cry out in a strained voice before it was too late.

“Will!” Will felt the hands back off immediately at the sound of Philip’s voice from the bottom of the steps.

Will peered down and was met with the sight of a sweating Philip, a towel draped along his back and shoulders, his shorts sweat and stained with grease.

“What’re you doing, man?” Philip asked as he climbed the steps and seemed to be headed either to his room or to shower.

Will stepped out of his way and looked down bashfully at the floor. “I was um, well, I was going down to make some t-tea?” He looked back at Philip for approval, eyes peering at the Vietnamese boy over the rim of his dark glasses.

Philip cocked an eyebrow but shrugged, unperturbed. “Yeah sure man, whatever you want…you can use my kettle if you want.” He looked in confusion at Will as Will offered a smile of gratitude and bounded down the steps before more awkward moments were exchanged. He was almost at the kitchen when he stopped dead in his tracks.

Regatta.

He turned quickly and headed back up the steps, two at a time and banged on Philip’s half-open door.

“Jesus Will! What?!” Philip cried out as he dropped his towel, kicking off his exercise-running shoes quickly, obviously scared by Will’s aggressive knocking.

“Do you know anyone by the name of Regatta?” He asked, breathing heavily, headache growing stronger by the second.

“I don’t know…should I?” Philip asked as he backed up a little bit and stood near his closet.

Will didn’t know what to say. Truth be told, he hadn’t been expecting a question such as that. But to him, it was almost as if the voices he had been hearing were trying to convey a message to him. He was certain of it, and although it sounded odd, he felt he needed to check it out for himself.

“Um, never mind, just forget it…talk to you later, Phil.” Will turned and headed immediately for Max’s door, not forgetting to knock a few times loudly. He heard thumping and footsteps running in all directions before the door was opened a tiny crack. Max’s eyes looked deeply into Will’s, and widened when they saw how serious and determined Will looked.

Max stepped back and opened his door more, pulling Will inside partly. “Will?” He inquired, looking specifically at Will’s pale cheeks and red eyes.

“What’s happened, Will? You ok?” Max asked, reaching a hand out and shaking Will’s left shoulder gently.

Will nodded and looked at Max sternly. “Max, think real hard here, have you EVER known anyone in your life who goes by the name of Regatta?”

Max shook his head. “Will what’s the point of this?”

“Even as a middle name or a pet name thing?” Will asked, ignoring Max’s growing concern.

Max ran a hand through his slightly mussed hair. “Nope. I don’t, sorry Will." He seemed to be in some kind of a hurry, eyes darting around the room as if searching for something.

Will looked at Max, noting lube hidden very poorly halfway under his pillows on his bed. He rolled his eyes and turned back, heading for the door. He stopped as he began closing the door and turned to look at Max and his tightly closed stand-up closet door. “Thanks for your help Max, and one thing: Tell Brian to take it easy.” With that said, he closed the door gently.

Brian stumbled quickly out of the closet door as soon as Will left; his pants halfway down his legs awkwardly. He landed roughly on the hard-wood floor of the room on his stomach and groaned in pain.

“That was a dumb idea, but I love the way you pose for me, Max.” He sighed as if he was stuck in a dream-state and he was either unable to wake out of it, or he didn’t want to.

Will cursed himself internally as he headed back to his bedroom and sat down in front of his laptop. The laptop was asleep, but he moved the mouse and woke it back up and quickly went to Facebook. He was not letting his search up easily. Once he had logged into his account, he checked to see a big red 1 in his Messages Inbox at the top of the screen. He clicked his way inside his Inbox, and was shocked to see that the message was from Jack Crawford.

Will leaned back in his chair and smiled. So Jack really meant it when he had said back at Halloween that he wanted to be his friend after all.

The message read:

_Hey there stranger, hope all is well!_

Will typed back:

_Hello there, sorry I did not get back to you sooner. I know you sent this a few weeks ago, but things have been a bit on the crazy side here._

When he hit “reply” and entered his message to send off, he typed in “Regatta” in the Search For People search bar on Facebook. After the name was entered, the loading screen came up, soon followed by:

Error, search narrowed to: Regina, Reginald, Renaldo, etc.

The classic Facebook notification sound effect went off lightly, thanks to Will’s lowered volume. Will looked back at his Inbox and was shocked to see an instantaneous reply back from Jack Crawford.

_Same on my end, Will. But if you ever want to talk about anything, I am here for you. Not sure how well you’ll trust me though, given our shady past, but I promise I’m a pretty good listener!_

Will bit his lip and re-read the message. He finally decided to act, and leaned in closer despite how badly his eyes burned and faced the screen as if it were about to grow legs and run away from him any minute.

He typed as quickly as he could:

_Actually funny coincidence, this really is turning out to be. See, I was in class a few days ago and some guy kept saying this girl’s name-Regatta-and it sounded so familiar to me. Do you think we went to school with her? Do you know of that name? Just curious because it sounded funny and familiar. I am always here to talk too, Jack. I hope we can get off on a better ground this time._

Will eyed the conversation logs vehemently, biting his nails (a habit he swore he broke off years ago) nervously. He hated that the walls in his head were beginning to crumble and he was involving so many people in his little drama scene. He knew he could have kept this to himself more appropriately and probably waited until he got a good night’s worth of sleep before he went off on this rampage, but something within him told him this was not just a case of simply hearing voices due to being nervous or stressed or even coming down with a cold or flu. Will felt someone or something was trying to reach out to him and warn him in some way before something horrible happened.

Jack’s response came back after a bit longer than Will had expected, but he felt this was normal due to his increased nervousness.

_What the hell kind of name is THAT? Haha, no, I never heard of her, Will. Are you sure the guy wasn’t speaking in tongues? Crazy shit, you college people are into!! Lol._

Will felt all his hopes crush right away and he almost shut the laptop in anger. But he closed his eyes and took in a few deep breaths first and typed back a response numbly, heart-rate reaching a more comfortable pace now as he typed on.

_Fair enough. I didn’t think it would lead to anything. Maybe he was using a code name for a porn actress, haha._

Will felt himself blush at his stupid joke, and he wished he could retract that statement. He didn’t want Jack thinking he was some kind of sex-starved freak who sat and wanked off to porn every night until dawn. But the damage may or may not have been done already.

“Stupid me.” Will stated aloud, but gasped when he saw Jack’s reply.

_Wait! I should have said this sooner, but maybe it was an anagram, Will. Either way, it’d take a lot of effort, but if you’ve really got nothing better to do, I’d say it was an anagram. Let me know what it stands for, because you’ve got me curious now too XD_

Will felt his nails dig into the sides of his chair in embarrassment. He wished he thought of anagrams sooner, but thanked Jack and told him he had to go to bed because he was tired and finals would be arriving soon so he needed to study (which was not a lie at all either). He logged off quickly, and grabbed a blank piece of paper from his notebook, and climbed into bed with the sheets tightly bundled up around him as he pulled out a pen from a drawer on his night table and began writing from ten thirty at night until five in the morning.

His light bulb burned out as Will kept writing all the names he had heard the voices whisper at him earlier on, trying to make sense of even one of them. Hours molded together, but he kept trying everything he could as he played with the letters with increasing determination.

Will threw off his glasses as he looked at the sun creeping through his blinds. He felt sick to his stomach when he realized he had spent the entire night writing almost up to nine full pages, front to back, of possible names and meanings. He had gotten nowhere, and felt his head slump back and he allowed his body to succumb to the power of sleep. He closed his eyes and drowned out all noises, fears and concerns as if he were wiping away dirt from a window, and fell asleep with his notebook still resting on his lap. On the bottom of the page read the last sentence and name Will came up with before his mind blacked out due to over-work and exhaustion. In light and slightly faded ink, it read:  
  
**I am Garrett.**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brian's such a sneaky little bastard, isn't he?  
> And the anagram stuff was something that just came to me because I know it has always been a running theme with Hannibal, but I thought I'd try it out with my main character, Will.


	12. Unspoken Suffering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, it's been a LONG LONG time since I updated, and I apologize. Things just went on with school and family, and I won't get into any details because everyone wants to read the story....right? 
> 
> Enjoy!

Chapter 12

 

Hannibal stood among his medical peers, gazing in awe and fascination from his position behind the clear pane of glass that stood between ten other medical students and three experienced surgeons in an operating room cutting into a patient delicately.

Hannibal smelled the air and sneered at his fellow competitors, eyeing one Indian girl named Marhita. She had already pulled out a small notepad she carried around religiously, jotting down every breath their instructors took, practically. Hannibal rolled his eyes when he caught Marhita literally drawing out everything she was viewing in the surgery; labelling with red ink pen here and there and jotting down side notes in the process as quickly as she could. Hannibal didn't comprehend how any student thought that writing down every single thing a teacher stated qualified as decent and sufficient learning.

"Mr. Maroni is stable and doing very well, we will now be showing you a very basic step-by-step process involved in the heart transplant."

Hannibal held onto his grey peacoat, his forefinger playing with the inside lining of the coat pocket and then lazily sliding onto a large black button as he suppressed a dull yawn. He didn't consider this lecture a waste of time; he rather preferred to be in the operating room himself. Hannibal was already at the top of his class, and all this was nothing but a review to him, which he did appreciate to some degree. However, he didn't wish to be held behind when he could have been assisting in major surgeries and applying his talent and skill where accurately needed. He was also growing steadfastly angry with the way the nurse was all too slowly passing the head surgeon the operating tools, nearly dropping a few in the process. It would only be a matter of time before she would drop one, he silently wagered. 

"The hospital is very lucky to receive such healthy organ donors; especially on such short notice. Were it not for the speedy donor, Mr. Maroni would have had to wait another year or so on the waiting list."

Hannibal pondered the thought of the patient's heart slowing down, the arteries getting clogged, the blood pumping slower and slower within his body, eventually leading to organ failure and his body shutting down, preparing for death, inevitably. He half chuckled.

Suddenly, a door to the left of the group of the medical students opened gently, and a short woman from the main office Hannibal had spoken to hours ago when he checked into the hospital for his shift waved at the group.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Lecter, there's someone here to see you."

Hannibal cocked an inquisitive eyebrow. "Is it urgent?" He asked, though he knew the exact response to his question.

"It's very urgent."

He nodded. "Thank you Susan, I'll see to it right away." 

Hannibal looked at the surgeons quickly, nodding his head in a silent apology at Dr. Paun, who waved briefly, tired eyes peering at Hannibal through the clean glass. Hannibal needed no catching up on this lecture, and he was permitted to leave.

He grabbed his peacoat and placed it over his shoulders, briefly nodding to his fellow students out of social respect before he followed Susan out the door she entered and into the narrow hallway.

Hannibal walked with his head held high, enjoying the warm breeze of the lights shining down on his nose and cheeks. He didn't maintain eye contact with anyone in particular, counting down the hospital room numbers and water fountains to pass time until he reached the waiting room, room number #403.

Susan gestured to a very dishevelled Will Graham, holding out her hand briefly as if Will or Hannibal would hold onto it like a life saver. Hannibal stopped in his tracks once he set his eyes on Will.

"Thank you, Susan, have a good night."

Will looked up as soon as Hannibal's soothing voice echoed in his aching ears. Will was beyond nervous. He hadn't showered in a few days, his hair was all sweaty and messy around his forehead. His glasses were half off his nose, and very dirty. He sat with his knees pressed tightly against each other, thighs rubbing against each other and moving up and down slightly as if he were holding something between his legs tightly. He had shoved his hands deep in his brown jacket and he seemed to be shivering.

Hannibal took a step forward, and then breathed in Will's scent carefully. He knew Will was hiding something, and the breath he inhaled only validated his estimation. He frowned immediately out of concern and extended a hand to Will.

"Come, Will."

Will lowered his head and took a quivering breath before speaking. "I'm sorry, I know y-you can a class tonight, b-but I had to t-tell you, I can't remain quiet about it anymore, I can't, Hannibal, I-"

"Shhh, Will, please. Let's discuss this somewhere more private. Let's go to my car." Hannibal gently guided Will, who kept his hands strongly inside his coat pockets and led him out of the waiting room and through the front hallway of the hospital, past the reception desk, and outside into the cold winter night towards the parking lot.

Hannibal glanced at Will, a bit surprised that the boy maintained quite the amount of physical strength despite appearing so frail and fragile. But then again, there was always more to Will Graham beyond the surface level.

Once they reached Hannibal's black Bentley and were seated inside it, Will let out another breath but his hands remained safely in his pockets.

Hannibal turned on the lights inside the car and looked deeply into Will's dark eyes. "Will, let me see your hands, please." He made no move towards Will, knowing any sudden movement wouldn't result positively for either of them.

Will shook his head once, but slowly withdrew his hands. Hannibal didn't bat an eyelash when he was faced with Will's blood-stained hands. The blood wasn't Will's, and was drying, but it clearly was all over, the droplets trailing down past his forearms and going further down his sleeves, smeared everywhere they had happened to land.

"Will." Hannibal wasn't asking a question, making a declarative statement, or judging.

"I don't know what happened! This isn't my blood! I woke up, and I remember, um, I r-remember some things, and I know I didn't go to class today and I didn't talk to anyone in my house and I just, I..." Will's eyes darted back and forth, his body trembling violently despite the heat having been turned on in Hannibal's car.

"Will, you're going to have an episode. You MUST relax yourself." Hannibal spoke as calmly as he previously had, eyeing Will's features thoroughly in the light of the car.

Will had a sheen of sweat on his forehead and nose, and he took of his glasses with a shaking, bloodied hand, rubbing the glass on his jacket before putting them on again. Hannibal knew Will wanted to shield his eyes from him more than anything right now.

"I don't know whose blood this is! I don't even know! I woke up with the blood all over my h-hands! I can't remember anything! I blacked out, and, and I woke up, and th-there w-was blood! A lot of b-blood!"

"Was there a body?" Hannibal asked gently, leaning a bit closer to Will, still studying his face intently.

"No! I didn't really expect one either though...I think it would have made me feel even worse seeing a body!" Will cried, holding his shaking hands in front of him, his chest and back moving away from his hands as if they weren't even a part of his body.

"We need to leave, now." Hannibal turned on his car and carefully backed out of the hospital parking lot, the tires of the car crunching and eating through the freshly fallen snow of the night.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mason stood in front of the vanity mirror, poking and prodding his purple and blue yellow bruised face. It had been a few weeks since Will's brutal lashing upon Mason, and he still hadn't fully healed. Every day, Mason would sit for hours on end in the bathroom, poking and prodding his skin until it became light red. He couldn't explain why, but the bruises seemed to give him the proper adornment he felt he deserved all these years, and who better than Will Graham could have given it to him?

He watched from the right upper corner of the mirror as Margot stood fearfully in the doorway, watching him silently.

Mason smiled at her in the mirror, not turning to face her as he spoke. "Margot, my dear Margot, what can we do for you tonight?"

Margot looked down at the floor once he spoke.

"Hmm?" Mason eyed her like a predator through the mirror, eyes undressing her as he took in the sight of her blood red sweater with black cufflinks and black buttons in the middle of her sweater. Around her neck was a small horse emblem their grandmother had given her before she passed away.

"Petrov has prepared dinner..." Margot's voice got more silent with each passing word, she wrung her hands nervously, still not meeting Mason's glance in the mirror.

Mason swung around to face her, smiling brightly as if nothing was wrong. "Are you hungry, Margot?" He asked in a scary tone of voice, waiting for her reaction as if that would satiate his own sick hunger.

Margot remained silent for almost an age, and Mason was about to attend to his injuries once more, but then she spoke just before he turned back around.

"He should have cut your face off."

Mason barked out a maniacal laugh. "Close the door. I'll be taking my meal cold."

The last thing Margot did was give Mason the most displeased glare she could before she finally closed the door, wishing the mirror her brother was so admirably looking into would shatter into a million tiny pieces, the shards of glass flying forward into Mason's eyes and blinding him horribly, his eyes bleeding out rapidly before she could get to him and finally wreak the havoc upon him that he had allowed her to suffer for years.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Will woke with a sudden sharp gasp, sitting up abruptly to face a concerned Hannibal sitting in front of him. Hannibal placed a strong but warm hand on Will's chest and gently pushed him back to lie down.

"Your head is spinning like a top, I imagine. Sitting up like that so suddenly isn't such a good idea, Will."

"What time is it?" Will rubbed his eyes gently, trying to adjust to his glasses having been removed. Will recognized Hannibal's king sized bed, and he blushed immediately when he realized he was on it, black satin sheets pulled up very carefully and neatly around his body, matching black pillows propped behind his head, nestling him safely into a peaceful slumber; the best slumber he had the pleasure of having in weeks now.

"It's nearly midnight, Will. No point in going home now. I already called Philip, I told him you were in good hands."

"And Bedelia?"

Hannibal smiled gently. "I took the liberty of calling her, too. You really need to get more sleep, Will."

Will dreaded asking the next question, but he had to; it was inevitable. "Did you tell them about what happened t-to me?"

Hannibal paused for a long moment, the fireplace cracking behind him. "Had you wanted me to?"

Will sighed. "No. I'm not even sure what the hell happened, and I can't let them worry about me when I don't even know if I should be worrying about myself."

Hannibal cocked his head to the side curiously. "And what do you think you should be worried about exactly?"

Will resisted the urge to shrug. "My sanity perhaps."

Hannibal chuckled. "Sanity and worrying are not codependent, Will. I thought you of all people would come to that realization, if not sooner than most."

"Do you expect my perception and sense of self to be as magnificent as anyone else's?" Will inquired, feeling the anger within his chest beginning to rise and rear its ugly head in his throat as he spoke louder than normally. 

"I know that what I expect from you and what you want from yourself are entirely different, Will, and I won't waste your time labeling which has the greater priority. I trust in time you will eliminate the one that isn't so important to you."

"What if by that time I have no way of understanding what I want and which is important to me?" Will asked, feeling his palms sweating as he shook with fear. He hated the thought of being incapable of understanding himself and his own desires. Will lacked control over many things in his life, and whatever bit of control he did have, was slowly being taken away from him and was beginning to rot away with time. 

"That isn't a thought you ought to be pondering right now, Will. You're in no state of mind to be making such arguments, though you never cease to amaze me for even attempting to push yourself beyond your limits." Hannibal chewed at his lower lip, lost in thought as he studied Will intently.

"I think we need to touch upon the subject of YOUR worry over me." Will blankly stated as he stared numbly at the white ceiling, trying to visualize himself as having complete power over his own words and deeds. All he saw was a ceiling full of blood, so he looked back down into Hannibal's welcoming eyes.

"My worry for you is well placed, Will. I know you agree entirely with me." Hannibal didn't move his eyes off of Will's body as he spoke one word at a time, as if the words held a hidden message for Will. 

Will sighed and closed his eyes. "You really shouldn't be doing this for me. I feel much better, I really do."

Hannibal sat back down in front of Will's side of the bed, the fireplace on and blazing warmly behind them in the background, a thick brown book placed neatly in Hannibal's lap as he sat crossed legged in front of Will.

"Weakness doesn't always have to be construed as a negative trait, Will. Allowing others to care for us is very natural and desirable. It is only when care turns to dependence that is the issue."

Will laughed a dry laugh."Is that your opinion?"

Hannibal nodded. "It is, indeed."

"You're not a doctor." Will slurped up some saliva in his mouth, feeling suddenly as if his entire mouth was parched beyond belief. The room didn't feel hot at all, and Will still felt his the chill in his fingers and toes, but his mouth and face felt as if someone had dumped charcoal on them. 

"......Yet." Hannibal finished. "I'm not a doctor yet, but that doesn't mean I can't dispense medical advice if it will help you get better, Will."

Will felt his throat getting more and more dry, but tried suppressing a cough. Hannibal saw right through the display and got up once more from his seat and grabbed a glass of water resting on the night table beside the bed and ushered for Will to sit up a bit.

Will felt a little discomfort in his lower back as he bent his neck and chest forward to drink, but he smiled and felt all the discomfort melt away once Hannibal's warm hand was placed on the back of his neck, cradling his head almost paternally as he held the glass to Will's thirsty lips and helped him drink.

Will closed his eyes in comfort and relief once the cold water met with his lips and danced onto his tongue magically. It was as if all life had been brought back into his weak body. He felt his eyelids open on their own, and he looked deeply and passionately into Hannibal's brown eyes.

"I wish I could give you the answers to the questions you have, Will. It is at a time like this where I actually feel very useless as a friend to you." Hannibal kept a thumb somewhere within the confines of the thick brown book, somewhat a mockery of a bookmark replacement, but kept his brown eyes trained on Will, noting every breath he took and every move he made.

Will suddenly felt very warm-as if Hannibal's eyes provided the warmth and comfort he hadn't been able to find anywhere else or with anyone else, and he reciprocated the warm gesture with a smile.

"You are more help to me thank you think; even if I don't say so out loud."

It was Hannibal's turn to mirror back the smile. "We've always been able to understand each other without spoken words, Will. I have never shared a friendship like this with anyone else ever. It's both enchanting, and yet, terrifying." He drew a sharp breath and set the book down entirely, moving his body closer to Will.

Will sat up instinctively, his hands outstretched over the covers, calling for Hannibal.

Hannibal also reached out at the same time, and their hands touched. Will's eyes closed peacefully and he leaned his forehead to rest against Hannibal's, smiling happily when he felt Hannibal's soft clean light brown hair rubbing against his forehead and his own dark brown mop of curly hair.

"We're one, you and I." Will whispered, allowing his breath to dance on Hannibal's lips, cheering internally when he felt the older boy gasp and shudder in response to his statement.

Will opened his eyes and looked at Hannibal, who stared back with half closed eyelids. Both boys were in absolute awe and wonder as they sat in silence, each second ticking by in silence loud enough and heavy enough with meaning only shared and understood between them and them alone.

"We're Patroclus and Achilles, fate interwoven, incapable of separation, Will." Hannibal breathed after an eternity of shared silence.

Will chuckled briefly, and closed his eyes again, nodding lightly and running his hair through Hannibal's head. He felt Hannibal emit another gasp, and felt Hannibal's head droop as he succumbed to the enjoyment Will's fingers bestowed upon him. Will felt powerful; being able to render Hannibal completely silent and poised within his arms.

He thought for a second he could hear and feel Hannibal purring, even. He giggled at that thought, shaking Hannibal off his hand for a moment.

"What is it?" Hannibal asked, smiling softly as he stared at Will in a love-sick dazed look.

"You're like a cat! I swear, I heard you purring a second ago." Will shook his head and laughed even though it hurt his lower back a little.

Hannibal rolled his eyes.

"And sassy like one too!" Will added, laughing a bit harder at his own joke.

Hannibal frowned. "You're in no position to be mocking me, Will. I am the one completely in control of you now; both in body and mind."

Will blushed. "I'd like a demonstration of your power over me right now...if you don't mind."

Hannibal smiled devilishly. "My power over you? How would you prefer it, Will? Body? Or mind?"

Will felt himself blush even more than previously. "I think we both know the answer to that question."

"Yes indeed." Hannibal's eyes closed as he leaned forward to steal a kiss from Will. Will felt his heart leap for joy, and he felt Hannibal's lips lingering over his, and they were finally able to wrap their arms around one another, but then Will's cell phone rang loudly, and both boys sprung apart.

"It's mine, I'll get it." Will cursed whoever was calling internally, and he held his head in one hand and reached for his cell phone off the night table with another. The caller display stated it was Bedelia calling.

 _"Of all times."_ Will hesitated and considered ignoring the call, but when he looked at Hannibal, he knew he had to answer it. Hannibal silently looked down at the phone, and then back up at Will, gesturing with his chin forward for Will to answer.

Will sighed and pressed the "answer" button. "Hello mom."

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Mason looked down at his own bruised reflection as he dangled the sharp knife in one hand and held Margot's neck in the other tightly. Margot clawed at Mason's sides and arms, but her struggles went unnoticed as Mason stuck his tongue out at himself in his reflection within the knife blade.

A few horses in the stable neighed in fear and panic, their large dark eyes darting around in the dimly lit area. They sensed the evil that was Mason Verger, and a few of the terrified equines even raked their hooves against the cold stone floor of the barn in retaliation for all the sins they had witnessed.

"How long do you suppose these will take to fully heal, Margot?" Mason asked in a nasally mocking tone of voice as he threw his head back a little and gently ran the knife blade over his neck, not cutting but teasing the skin lightly.

Margot shook her head violently back and forth, her dark hair flailing in her face as she struggled to free herself.

"A month? Year? Decade?" Mason flicked the knife in the air with his free hand and let it fall back into his hand, catching it deftly by the handle.

"You used to love watching me perform that trick when you were younger." Mason giggled hysterically and a horse neighed back in return a second later.

Margot felt Mason's grip on her neck tighten, and she began sobbing in order to keep her cries as silent as she could, but it was getting more difficult with Mason tightening his grip every few seconds.

"Please, let me go!" She wheezed out, literally seeing stars as Mason's grip tightened even more.

"I don't think so, Margot. I was rather busy before and I didn't get a chance to spend adequate time with my lovely little sister. I can't tell you how sorry I am for doing that to you. What kind of good big brother does that? I need to make up for our lost time, Margot. I'm doing this all for you..." He threw the knife down and grabbed Margot's left arm roughly and threw her down into a haystack.

A few horses pulled at their bindings, the rope creaking harshly and wood cracking and making noise in the process. Margot wished they would pull at their ropes so hard that the entire roof of the stable would cave in and come crashing down on Mason and herself, killing them and freeing them of all the torture that the world had provided ever since their parents passed away.

"Margot, look what you've done! You've spooked the horses!" Mason feigned concern, and leaned down to look at Margot.

Margot closed her eyes in terror, feeling tears burning past her eyelids and squeezing their way down her cheeks.

Mason grabbed her face in his cold, strong hand suddenly. "Ah ah ah! Wait, Margot."

Margot opened one eye and watched as Mason reached into the pocket of his dress pants, and pulled out a small golden rectangular box. From it, he withdrew a small white napkin cloth, and he reached up and dabbed it gently at Margot's eyes, capturing the tears as much as he could and as delicately as he could.

Margot cried even harder, wishing she could fly far away from Mason and find a way that would allow him to never follow her and hurt her ever again. She wished and wished and wished as Mason dabbed at the skin of her cheeks, but when she opened her eyes he was still there.

"Your tears are too precious to be wasted, Margot, so I'm going to keep them. I have better plans for wasted tears."

"Mason, please!"

He pressed an index finger on her lips, silencing her immediately.

"No more talk, Margot. It's time I did my duties as an older brother, and took good care of you."

From the windows of the stable, the last few lights finally shut off in the dark of the night, and the last horse sounded for a brief moment, before it too was silenced.

Elsewhere, Hannibal and Will snuffed out the fireplace lights and warmth, both boys heading to separate rooms and bidding an unspoken goodnight to the other. Neither of them wanted the morning to arrive like they once used to.


End file.
